Michael Gates, former Huntington Beach City Attorney, took another step on his path toward MAGA sainthood with his February 2025 appointment as a deputy attorney general in President Trump’s Department of Justice. Assigned to the Civil Rights Division, he is now positioned to advance MAGA’s anti–civil‑rights agenda at the federal level. First elected city attorney in 2014 and re‑elected twice, Gates used the office to politicize city legal operations and help cement a unanimous seven‑member MAGA majority on the Huntington Beach City Council—a transformation that had begun years earlier, as far back as 2009.

Recap from MAGA City Journal, entry #2

Republican operative Chip Hanlon dismissed McGrath’s legal opinion as “tortured” and “mindless,” yet he never cited any language in Section 617 that excludes infrastructure‑related debt service from the 15‑percent set‑aside of city funds. Nor did he challenge her case‑law citations. Instead, Hanlon issued a political warning: McGrath, a fellow Republican, would face “the strongest challenger she could imagine this fall,” someone “extremely close in [Republican] party politics, connected to the Rohrabachers, highly recognizable, and deeply tied to the donor community.” He claimed McGrath would faint when she learned the name. “It’s a stunning development,” he said, “and we’ll be watching like hawks for an official announcement on this one.” McGrath—who had run unopposed in her previous election—was concerned, but she refused to back down.

MAGA City Journal, entry #3

Councilmember Devin Dwyer’s Wrath Vs. McGrath

During a June 7 (2010) meeting of the Huntington Beach City Council, Councilmember Dwyer revealed his intent to overrule City Attorney Jennifer McGrath’s interpretation of Section 617 of the City Charter, in order to create a budget crisis that would force the city to renegotiate labor agreements. He argued that those contracts had inflated public-employee pensions, and that they were the main cause of the city’s financial troubles.

“We are no longer going to be able to hire police officers, firemen, anybody that can retire at 50 years with 90 to 98 percent of their wage,” he predicted. “We can’t continue to do that. That is where the savings is going to be.”

One of the most controversial agenda items was the recommendation to create a ballot measure to exclude all debt service from the city’s infrastructure fund, exactly what Hanlon and friends say Section 617 called for in the first place.

Serving as legal counsel for the city council, McGrath had assisted the Charter Review Commission the previous year in drafting new language to close the loophole in Section 617 that had provoked Baugh’s red brigade.

However, rather than acknowledging her efforts professionally, Dwyer repeatedly criticized McGrath, accusing her of being “just another lawyer” who uses “legalese” to “twist things”—specifically the definition of the term infrastructure—to undermine the true will of the voters.

McGrath shot back. “Excuse me…Councilman Dwyer. I have to take exception. I am not twisting the definition of infrastructure … I am reading it out loud, what was voted on by the people. So, that’s not a twist and that’s not legalese.”

Dwyer continued to demonize McGrath for doing her job as city attorney. “You see, that’s where I think the interpretation gets twisted by a lawyer,” he said. “I don’t see how we can define it so finite that you keep lawyers out of it.”

Wedge Issue

The 617 revision was placed on the November ballot by a 4 -3 vote of the City Council. But if it passed, it wouldn’t kick in until 2017, when the 2010 council members wouldn’t be in office to make the tough budget decisions they were saying so urgently need to be made.

“Lacking the courage or fortitude to address the issue as part of the budget process, they are relying on the knee jerk reaction of voters to support a measure that purports to be about infrastructure,” former Huntington Beach mayor Debbie Cook told me at the time.

Cook helped write the arguments against the upcoming ballot measure. “It’s more likely a ruse to create a wedge issue for the next election and to attack their favorite target—public employees,” she concluded.

On June 19, 2010, McGrath informed me that she had been told personally by Scott Baugh that he was considering running against her in the upcoming city election. Her campaign literature would reference that he is a potential candidate, she said.

As a clever publicity stunt, Dwyer announced that he had arranged for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to donate $8,800 to the city for the cost of placing the Section 617 revision on the November ballot.

“It’s taxpayers vs. the special interests, those who would rather preserve bloated contracts than spend on the most basic needs of our citizens,” he righteously proclaimed.

A PAC was being formed, he said, and the city would get the check within a week. Meanwhile, McGrath nervously waited for the possible arrival of her secret opponent.

Both the campaign to oust McGrath and pass the Charter amendment failed by wide margins. After challenging Houston’s eligibility for office, McGrath defeated 40,470 votes (72.5%) to his 15,315 votes (27.5%). The amendment failed 45.5 percent voting yes to 54.5 percent voting no.

That same year (2010) progressive democrats Connie Boardman and Joe Shaw were elected to the council, both for their first and last time. Republican incumbent councilman Joe Carchio was reelected for a final term. Republican Matthew Harper was elected and would serve one term before being elected to the state assembly in 2014.

In 2011, the city council reached an agreement with the Huntington Beach Police Association for a retirement plan by a 4-3 vote—with Hansen, Harper and Dwyer voting no.

Dwyer out - progressives in control

Despite endorsements from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), State Sen. Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach) and Assemblyman Allan Mansoor (R-Costa Mesa), Dwyer’s political career ended in 2012 when he ran for reelection and finished fifth, missing out on one of three open seats.

Possible reasons for Dwyer’s poor showing include his sexist treatment of McGrath, his rigid anti‑labor rhetoric, and the strong comeback campaigns of two well‑liked former councilmembers, Jill Hardy and Dave Sullivan. But nothing drew more public anger than his support for Connie Boardman’s proposal to ban plastic bags in Huntington Beach.

The return of Hardy and Sullivan—along with the election of moderate Republican Jim Katapodis in 2012—created a new council majority opposed to the Poseidon Resources ocean desalination project. Their victories also sparked hope for a more progressive bloc made up of Boardman, Shaw, Katapodis, and Hardy, who had just survived a vicious smear campaign funded by Poseidon.

Boardman emphasized that Poseidon’s attacks had backfired. “It should send a lesson to those who want to manipulate Huntington Beach voters with negative campaigning—and the lesson is very simple: it doesn’t work. Our voters are smarter than that,” she said.

She announced that Councilmember Shaw would introduce a plan to reform campaign‑finance and disclosure rules, and she celebrated what she saw as a new political moment. “For the first time in many years, the city has a truly grassroots city council,” she said. “I can promise the people of Huntington Beach that this council will make decisions based on what’s best for the city and what’s best for the residents. I’m looking forward to a very positive and productive year.” As the new mayor, her priorities included developing a citywide strategy to address global warming and rising sea levels driven by human‑caused climate change.

Huntington Beach Planning Commissioner Mark Bixby echoed the sense of renewal. “Tonight marks the beginning of an exciting new era for Huntington Beach,” he told the Orange County Register. “The days of despair are over, so let us look forwards instead of backwards.”

But a different political current was sweeping across the country. Growing out of economic instability and widening inequality—conditions cultivated by both major parties and fueled by rising oligarchic influence—it fed on a mix of pop‑culture paranoia, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, anti‑science sentiment, and religious extremism. Calling itself the Tea Party movement, it would, within a decade, evolve into its direct descendant: the MAGA movement, which ultimately seized full control of Huntington Beach city government.

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American intelligence agencies believe Iran is behind a cyber attack on more than 30 Minnesota water systems — plus an unknown number in other states — which came five months into the U.S.-Iran War, according to reporting this week from national news outlets including the New York Times and Washington Post.

“The tradecraft used, and the absence of a ransom demand, had led analysts to tentatively conclude that it was the work of Iranian hackers,” the Times reports.

But President Donald Trump on Friday blamed Minnesota government for the attack on its own critical infrastructure — instead of the country his administration has been at war with since killing its Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei and other top Iranian officials in February.

“We heard in Minnesota there was a cyberattack and they blame it on Iran. I don’t think so. I think I blame it on Minnesota because they’re grossly incompetent. There was a cyber attack of 30 water plants and I would blame it on Minnesota and the governor, the corrupt governor of Minnesota… Iran’s got bigger problems than worrying about Minnesota,” Trump said.

Trump’s war, which has destabilized the Middle East and world energy markets, has become deeply unpopular with the public. A recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed about two-thirds of U.S. adults say the war has been a mistake. It’s among a slate of potential causes for Trump’s own sinking popularity ahead of crucial midterm elections in the fall.

When asked later by a reporter whether he could rule out Iran being behind the attack, Trump doubled down.

“Minnesota is behind it,” Trump said. “You know who is behind it? Minnesota. Because they’re incompetent. The governor’s really…I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack. I think Minnesota ought to get its act together. It’s one of the worst-run states.”

Iran has repeatedly targeted American cyber infrastructure since the beginning of the war, including the attack on Stryker, the Michigan-based medical equipment manufacturer, which a hacker group said was retaliation for an American strike on an Iranian school that killed 156 civilians, including 120 children.

Minnesota IT Services (MNIT), the massive information and technology agency for the State’s executive branch, says it is “working side by side with our partners to share intelligence, support affected communities, and help utilities restore operations safely while strengthening defenses against future attacks.” [Additional content by SoCal Water Wars]

In a statement, Gov. Tim Walz thanked Minnesota experts for quickly identifying the vulnerability and assisting local communities in recovering. Minnesota authorities say the water supply remains safe.

“Trump knows exactly who is responsible for this attack, and knows that other states were hit too,” Walz said. “This is what modern warfare looks like, and it further illustrates there’s no plan to win a war with Iran.”

Minnesota Reformer reporter Madison McVan’s original story published on July 31, 2026.

Madison McVan is a reporter covering the impact of the Trump administration on Minnesotans, including issues like immigration, agriculture, Medicaid, food, housing and other safety net cuts. She’s also covering the 2026 Minnesota U.S. Senate race.

Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

John Earl is the publisher and editor of this newsletter, SoCal Water Wars.

Trump’s Iran folly—a Southern California perspective

By John Earl

Note: First, I object to the unanalyzed use in the above article of a quote from MN Gov. Tim Walz regarding Trump’s Iran war, that “it further illustrates there’s no plan to win a war with Iran.” He’s entitled to his opinion and it was right of the Reformer to use the quote. But, come on, doesn’t it demand a response? Does Walz mean that there should be a plan to win a war with Iran? If so, why? Most people believe that there shouldn’t have been a war in the first place. I agree and think that Trump should stop it now by withdrawing. Walz should have been challenged. J.E.

Trump’s claim that Iran has little interest in targeting Minnesota’s water agencies—despite its retaliatory strikes against U.S. allies following American and Israeli attacks on its infrastructure, directly contradicts warnings issued by his own Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

On July 22, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a DHS component, issued a press release underscoring an April joint Cybersecurity Advisory titled Iranian-Affiliated Cyber Actors Exploit Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) Across US Critical Infrastructure.

CISA stressed that it has “consistently warned critical infrastructure stakeholders” that Iranian‑linked actors are actively targeting U.S. systems, including by compromising unsecured internet‑connected devices, and urged partners to review the advisory and implement its recommended defenses.

American national security experts have warned for at least 15 years that Iran—and other adversarial states such as Russia and China—pose a serious threat to U.S. infrastructure, including water‑management systems.

Those warnings long predated Trump’s decision to join Israel in the mass bombings of Iran on June 21–22, 2025 under “Operation Midnight Hammer,” and the massive military buildup that followed, culminating in the current and seemingly never-ending six‑month‑long war.

Between 2011 and 2013, the Obama administration’s Department of Justice indicted several Iranian hackers for cyberattacks that disrupted U.S. banking systems and caused tens of millions of dollars in losses. In one case, an Iranian hacker was charged with breaching the control system of a dam in New York and manipulating a gate used to regulate water levels during maintenance.

Ironically, the New York Times reported on the legal tactics used by Republican‑led states and industry groups to block enforcement of a 2023 Environmental Protection Agency policy—introduced under the Biden administration—to strengthen cybersecurity protections for America’s water agencies.

Shortly after that proposal was struck down, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps hacked into the software of a small Pennsylvania town and accessed controls governing its water pressure, the Times reported.

The national‑security stakes of this vulnerability were underscored by DHS Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar, who addressed an audience of Southern California water officials at the Water Policy Forum and Dinner, hosted by the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) in Costa Mesa on June 26, 2025.

A Tangled Web of Hacker Opportunities

MWDOC is one of 26 member water agencies in Southern California that belong to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), which supplies imported water for 19 million residents in six counties. MWDOC buys imported water from MWD and sells it to its own 27 Orange County member agencies, serving 3.5 million residents—its portion of MWD’s overall service population.

MWDOC has seven elected members on its board of directors. Three of them—along with one additional appointee who is not a board member—represent MWDOC on MWD’s 38-member Board of Directors.

In all, that board is composed of representatives appointed by MWD’s 26 member agencies, including the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA), which supplies water to its own 22 member agencies serving 3.3 million of MWD’s 19 million customers.

The full array of water agencies operating in Southern California is too sprawling and absurdly complex to detail here. What matters is that the districts served by MWD, MWDOC, and SDCWA operate under similar mandates and rely on shared infrastructure, yet still differ in important ways in how they deliver water to their ratepayers.

Given the sheer number of separate agencies in Southern California—each with its own bureaucracy, budget, staffing levels, and water‑management systems—the region offers a wide web of opportunities for cyber intruders. And as Trump’s conflict with Iran makes clear, water can be weaponized from across the globe.

It can be weaponized at home, too.

Waging War on the Homeland

A president who can defy constitutional authority and international law to wage war against Iran, Venezuela, or Cuba can also turn federal agencies and domestic infrastructure—including water systems—against his own population. The same mechanisms that enable foreign conflict can be repurposed for political repression at home.

Weeks before the MWDOC dinner honoring Edgar, ICE raids terrorized immigrants in Los Angeles and clashed with roughly 1,000 protesters—some of it unfolding within sight of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s downtown headquarters.

Those clashes were soon followed by Trump’s deployment of more than 4,000 National Guard troops across Los Angeles. The issue remains unresolved in the courts: judges repeatedly ordered Trump to return the Guard to state control, but appellate rulings allowed him to delay compliance as the case slowly moves toward the Supreme Court.

In the 21st century, Southern California’s water buffalos do not float apart from politics of the world; they swim in it, just like the rest of us. They must be forced by the public to swim in the right direction.

Meanwhile, ICE agents continue to brutalize and detain immigrants across America—including children—without due process. They continue committing occasional murders with in-custody deaths rising to unprecedented levels across an expanding network of detention camps.

And beyond Trump’s brinkmanship with global conflict, DHS and the rest of his administration are dismantling climate science and gutting climate‑adaptation programs, including renewable‑energy initiatives—leading Earth into the ultimate climate catastrophe, second only to the atomic bomb.

It’s all part of democratic republicanism’s growing fascist rot. Meanwhile, your local water buffalos continue to calmly go about their business more or less as usual, giving an occasional nod to climate reality to move that business along, when they’re not cluster-fucking like they did at Edgar’s honorary dinner forum. More on that next.

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I wiped the blood off my chin and tasted the dirt that clung to my teeth. Staggering, I walked the half‑mile back to my car, treated my wounds, and drove home, where I sat down to reflect on the fragility and tentative nature of life.

That’s how I feel when I wake up each morning and face the mind‑numbing banality of Southern California’s water buffalos—the political bureaucrats who are assisting Donald Trump’s ongoing MAGA‑fascist vendetta against our democratic republic, the world’s ecosystems, and humanity itself.

Most of us understand that human-induced climate catastrophe is an urgent and escalating issue of life or death. Polls show that a clear majority of Americans want immediate and substantial government action to mitigate and prepare for the worsening effects of global warming.

Clearly, an immediate and collective response is needed to minimize humanity’s self-inflicted evolutionary collapse and ensure a life worth living for future generations.

The ability of Southern Californians to minimize and adapt to climate catastrophe depends on five key factors:

• the President of the United States and Congress;

• the Governor of California and the State Legislature;

• the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) and its 26 member agencies;

• immediate and full enactment of collective climate action plans world-wide

• and most important, We The People.

Water buffalos come in different shades of gray, but they share a common instinct: career officials convinced that survival depends on obsequiously navigating a maze of ethical, legal, and political contradictions across a transactional landscape. Their working motto might as well be, “Obey the leader, sell as much water as you can, and never frighten the herd.”

The consequences of that bureaucratic, self‑protective, and often corrupt approach to water management pose a clear and present danger to the public today and to the generations that will inherit the systems they leave behind.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD)—which provides imported water supplies for 19 million residents—is a virtual case study of the playing out of Hannah Arendt’s theory of the Banality of Evil, used to explain the rise of Adolf Hitler’s Nazism and the Holocaust.

Arendt argued that ordinary people—not just fanatics or sociopaths—can commit atrocities when they follow bureaucratic norms without thinking critically about their actions. She died in 1975, but her insight remains self-evident today in the rise in neo‑fascism worldwide, including Donald Trump and the MAGA movement.

Trump Derangement Syndrome?

By any reasonable measure, Donald Trump and his MAGA‑fascist movement have emerged as the most dangerous threat to humanity since the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Third Reich.

You can accuse me of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” if you want. But I ask: who is really deranged, and who is sane? The answer depends largely on what kind of world you want to live in—and what kind of world you want to leave behind for others.

A few weeks after the extra‑judicial killings, i.e. murders, of two innocent protesters in Minneapolis last January—shot by Trump’s Prussian‑styled ICE troopers—and seven months after MWD and the Municipal Water District of Orange County’s dinner tribute to their “good friend,” Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Troy Edgar, I sent a short survey to 71 water‑board directors across Southern California.

It consisted of three yes/no questions and one open‑ended prompt, all focused on Trump’s climate‑change and federal‑funding policies:

1. Are the administration’s denialist climate‑change policies an existential threat to life on Earth?

2. Do Trump’s broad funding cuts to federal agencies harm or endanger vital water‑management programs?

3. Overall, are the administration’s water‑management policies bad or great?

The final prompt invited respondents to offer “clarifications or additional thoughts regarding the previous questions.”

The number of survey responders was small; but one stood out—and after attending water‑board meetings for the past 17 years, it didn’t surprise me. It read:

“Your blatantly negative, biased questions make your survey a weak attempt to justify your head‑in‑the‑sand approach to the new reasonableness exhibited by the Trump Administration in dealing with the realities of life in a modern world. The consistently fringe approach and wacko conspiracy theories you espouse make for head‑shaking reading. Thanks for the entertainment.” [emphasis added]

If the respondent can stop shaking their head for just a moment, I’d like to explain that no creature can produce an “unbiased” thought or action—and humanity should be grateful for that. A truly unbiased “journalist” would be a thoughtless, inert blob, incapable of meaning, purpose, or attachment.

That is not to say that one’s bias can’t interfere with objectivity—if we become knowingly or unknowingly overwhelmed by it. As Bertrand Russell notes in A History of Western Philosophy (1943), no thinker, however brilliant, is immune to the distortions of personal perspective when discussing the great issues of their times:

Take first, the problem of universals. This problem was first discussed by Plato, then by Aristotle, by the Schoolmen, by the British empiricists, and by most modern logicians. It would be absurd to deny that bias has influenced the opinions of philosophers on this question.

The most honest thing a philosopher, journalist or water board director can do is admit that by nature they are biased in everything they do. Imagine introducing yourself at a BA meeting—Bias-aholics Anonymous. You might say something like this:

My name is John Earl, and I am biased 24/7. I can not help it but I’m not ashamed because bias is part of being human. One of my strongest biases is simple: I oppose fascism and fascists in government. As a journalist, I understand that truth comes in layers—clear or absolute truths (which often turn out to be untrue), nuanced truths, and truths we haven’t yet uncovered—and that readers depend on accurate, honest information presented objectively and in context. So I pledge, in good faith, to challenge myself constantly to uphold those values and to help my fellow bias‑aholics do the same.

SoCal Water Wars is a reader-supported publication of investigative and analytical journalism about water politics. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The myth of unbiased reporting carries an erroneous corollary: that biased reporting is inherently unfair, while self‑proclaimed “unbiased” reporting is fair, accurate, and trustworthy. But accusing your opponents of bias is often just a desperate attempt to marginalize their argument when your own argument can’t hold water.

But the nature of bias—and how it is handled—matters. For me, the real question is whether the reporter or the water‑board director will present actual facts, in context, to the public, and whether they care enough about humanity’s future to help make the world livable for all of us.

For my own bias, the answer to that question is often disappointing. Two examples taken from the mainstream media are:

The New York Times: It devotes enormous energy to insisting that its reporters are neutral, offering “All the news that’s fit to print.” FOX News built its brand on the claim that its coverage is “fair and balanced.”

Yet the Times routinely manipulates readers under the guise of balance and neutrality, diluting facts—neo-fascists become “conservatives,” Christian-fascists become “Christian-nationalists”—whenever the facts conflict with its own capitalist agenda. That agenda includes promoting U.S. imperialism and rationalizing its war crimes, defending class warfare driven by oligarchy, and sanitizing Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

FOX News: It has its own slightly harsher capitalist agenda and functions as a propaganda outlet for climate-change denialist Donald Trump and the broader MAGA-fascist movement (which also promotes oligarchy, U.S. imperialism, genocide, etc.). In general, it shows extreme disdain for democracy and the United States Constitution’; it prioritizes ratings and conspiracy falsehoods over facts in order to increase profits.

For decades, unchecked corporate and ideological biases across the spectrums of both “liberal” and “conservative” mainstream news outlets produced superficial and often inaccurate coverage about ocean desalination. Coverage by gentry journalists routinely favored two major Southern California ocean‑desalination projects: one ultimately built in Carlsbad and still operating today, and another proposed for Huntington Beach—that the California Coastal Commission eventually rejected.

The rise of the Carlsbad plant reflected a powerful corporate bias. Poseidon Resources, the developer, saturated the public sphere with promotional messaging crafted for its international investors, backed by aggressive lobbying and campaign contributions to both Democratic and Republican politicians.

Poseidon argued that the plant was environmentally safe, economically sound, and essential for securing San Diego County’s water supply. Opponents—who lacked organization, resources, and media reach—countered that it would cause irreparable harm to marine life, was financially unsustainable and unnecessary given viable alternatives. The California Coastal Commission mostly agreed with Poseidon and approved the project. The $1‑billion facility began operating in 2015.

The widely celebrated defeat of Poseidon’s nearly identical Huntington Beach project, after an agonizing 20‑year gestation period, emerged from a different political landscape. This time, an anti‑corporate (at least regarding Poseidon), environmentally oriented, and distinctly NIMBY‑inflected coalition of local residents built a grassroots movement that grew into a statewide force. The unrelenting political pressure of their movement gradually shifted public opinion against the project and pushed some corporate media and elected officials to question it, despite Poseidon’s well‑funded campaign and efforts by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pro‑Poseidon political machine to jam the project through state regulatory agencies.

Again, Poseidon insisted the project was environmentally safe, economically sound, and necessary. But in Huntington Beach, the company went further—rebranding the plant as a green‑energy initiative rooted in environmental justice and hiring former environmental figures like retired U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer to prove it.

Opponents, including this writer, accused Poseidon of greenwashing, warned of severe marine impacts, argued the economics were flawed, and emphasized that better alternatives already existed. In 2023, the Coastal Commission agreed with virtually all of these points and voted unanimously to abort Poseidon’s $1.4‑billion proposal.

Like the New York Times and FOX News, every water agency has its own biased branding strategy. Water buffalos want the public—the citizens who pay their salaries and benefits—to believe they are operating at the cutting edge of water‑management philosophy, science and technology. They present themselves as visionaries creating ever-lasting water abundance in an era of shrinking, increasingly inaccessible supplies.

Next: The Municipal Water District of Orange County.

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January 23, 2026 10:16 AM
For the Minnesota Reformer
Used with permission

Thousands gathered amid sub-zero temperatures Friday to protest the federal incursion of 3,000 immigration officers, who critics say are routinely violating people’s civil rights, Jan. 23, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

Thousands of Minnesotans gathered in downtown Minneapolis Friday amid subzero temperatures to protest the federal government’s continuing surge of immigration enforcement — demanding civil rights and a withdrawal of the 3,000 officers sent here by the administration of President Donald Trump.

The demonstration took place on “ICE Out of Minnesota: Day of Truth & Freedom,” a general strike supported by Minnesota unions, progressive faith leaders and community activists. Proponents are encouraging all Minnesotans to stay home from work, school and refrain from shopping — disruptions of normal orders of business to protest the presence of federal immigration agents in Minnesota.

A morning protest at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport led to the arrests of roughly 100 clergy by MSP and Bloomington law enforcement Friday, said a statement from protest organizers.

Demonstrators at the airport were standing or kneeling on the roadway outside Terminal 1’s departures area and led away by law enforcement.

Jeff Lea, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Airports Commission, said in an email that the airport “worked in advance with event organizers to best accommodate their right to freedom of expression while also ensuring uninterrupted operations.”

“When the permitted activity went beyond the agreed-upon terms, MSP Airport Police began taking necessary action, including arrests, to protect public safety, airport security and access to Terminal 1,” Lea wrote. Lea said he could not yet confirm how many arrests were made.

At least one demonstrator was also arrested at the nearby Whipple Federal Building, where federal agents deployed chemical irritants into a crowd of protestors, the Star Tribune reported. Around noon, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office announced that it had given three dispersal orders for protestors to unblock an access road at the building. The Whipple Building, now a base for federal immigration operations, has been an ongoing site of protests.

The major Minneapolis protest began at The Commons Park at 2 p.m. in Minneapolis. The march will end at Target Center, where small businesses, faith leaders and unions are planning a rally at 3 p.m.

Natasha Dockter, the First Vice President of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators’ teachers chapter, handed out hand warmers to demonstrators arriving at The Commons alongside other teachers.

“I’m out here today because what’s going on in our city is completely and totally unacceptable. It’s impacting the lives of our students and their families that we serve,” Dockter said.

Over 700 businesses closed Friday to support the “ICE Out” day, according to Bring Me The News, which is keeping a running list.

“It is time to suspend the normal order of business to demand immediate cessation of ICE actions in MN, accountability for federal agents who have caused loss of life and abuse to Minnesota residents and call for Congress to immediately intervene,” the demonstration’s website states.

Over a dozen churches across Minnesota have announced they will hold prayer vigils to “mourn, pray and plant seeds of hope with one another,” according to ISAIAH, the nonprofit coalition of Minnesota faith and community groups.

Dozens of school districts across the state have closed Friday because of the dangerously cold temperatures. Minneapolis Public Schools were already planned to be closed Friday for a teacher record keeping day.

Michelle Griffith

Michelle Griffith covers Minnesota politics and policy for the Minnesota Reformer. She’s also covering the 2026 race for Minnesota governor. Most recently she was a reporter with The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead in North Dakota where she covered state and local government and Indigenous issues.

This story was originally produced by Minnesota Reformer, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes the Minnesota Reformer, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Please support their independent journalism. Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

Also see: Demonstrators Flood Minneapolis Streets as Hundreds of Business Close to Protest ICE (New York Times gift article)

MWD supplies water for 19 million SoCal residents in six counties, including MWDOC. MWDOC sells MWD’s imported water, which comes from Northern California (through the State Water Project) and the Colorado River, to its 27 Orange County member agencies serving 3.5 million residents.

What do our water districts stand for in terms of water management philosophy and policies, including ethics, transparency and politics?

It’s a fair question, and answering it honestly requires water‑board officials to drop the pretense that political partisanship somehow stops at the edge of their dais. A good place to watch that illusion fall apart is at one of their semi‑private, corporate‑sponsored water‑buffalo forums—events the general public rarely hears about.

A few notes about these gatherings. They’re always held in the ballroom of an upscale hotel. Before dinner, you can buy a drink at the bar just outside the doors, giving you a chance to mingle with the Who’s Who of Southern California water buffalos and maybe overhear a few interesting conversations not meant for public ears.

But it will cost you.

Dinner typically runs about $150—$160 if you’re not a member of the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA, but that’s another great story). For that price, you get a nicely plated serving of high‑end airline food, a slice of cheesecake for dessert, and an endless supply of State Water Project water at no extra charge—unless you count the $150 infrastructure fee you already paid.

Seating, much like voting power on the MWD Board of Directors, is determined by wealth. The biggest players buy entire tables positioned closest to the stage, where the evening’s honored guests will speak. A table for eight goes for roughly $1,350.

This is more or less what you can expect at the upcoming Municipal Water District of Orange County Water Policy Forum and Dinner 2026 at the Westin Hotel in Costa Mesa, where MWD’s newest general manager, Shivaji Deshmukh, will be the guest of honor.

It’s not an event designed for people struggling to pay their water or sewer bills, and your absence will go entirely unnoticed. Few people do, but you can watch a recording on YouTube days or weeks later from the comfort of your home, though it’s far less revealing than sharing cheesecake with the people who raise your rates every year.

ICE’s Deputy Secretary’s welcome by MWDOC and MWD

I’d had more than enough cheesecake at these events over the years as a comped journalist and member America’s bottom one-percent, so I skipped the chance on June 26, 2025, to watch Troy Edgar, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, take the stage as the honored guest at MWDOC’s Water Policy Forum and Dinner.

Besides, I probably would’ve been arrested before I ever made it to dessert. Full disclosure—SURPRISE :)—I’m no fan of DHS or ICE, especially in their current Trump 2.0 incarnation. And if you’re wondering why, just look at the now‑infamous video of the killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent on a Minneapolis street on January 7, 2025.

That horrific event occurred only days ago, more than six months after MWDOC’s celebration of Edgar and DHS. But the agency’s racist, brutal, and indiscriminate attacks on immigrants—and on U.S. citizens who were either people of color or who protested those tactics—had been underway almost from the moment Donald Trump was sworn in as America’s 47th president on January 20, 2025, marking the start of what he called the Golden Age of America.

But I did watch MWDOC’s event honoring Edgar—and the agency that had already spent six months perpetrating a reign of terror against immigrants and others in cities across America—on YouTube. The video is posted below.

I had long considered asking MWDOC board president Larry Dick—who hosted the forum honoring Edgar and frequently emcees district events—along with MWDOC director Bob McVicker (until recently the board president) and MWD board chair Adán Ortega, about the glaring contradiction between MWD’s stated goals and the partners it chooses to elevate.

On one hand, MWD promotes climate‑change adaptation, long‑term water sustainability, equitable policies, and workplace D.E.I. On the other, the Department of Homeland Security under President Trump openly embraces climate denialism, is developing a secretive and unaccountable police force marked by brutality and racial targeting, and is working to eliminate D.E.I. across both government and the private sector. The disconnect is hard to ignore.

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Finally, my horror over the murder of Renee Good pushed me to act. On January 9, I sent separate but nearly identical media inquiries to Dick, McVicker, and Ortega. A few hours later, Ortega replied by email, directing me to call the MWD press office “with any inquiries to inform your editorial.”

I followed up with an email to the press office instead—as I usually do—but received no response. McVicker and Dick didn’t respond either, even though I also texted Dick. I tried again with all three on January 12 and still haven’t heard back.

The most recent inquiries—essentially the same, but with an added question for Dick about his use of the phrase “our current national security priority”—are posted below. They outline the issues in more detail.

Note: neither of the emailed media inquiries contained photos or screenshots. I have added them for context.

I ask readers to decide if the public deserves answers or not. You can leave your vote in the poll at the end of this article.

Media Inquiry (to Adán Ortega):

On June 26, the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) held its corporate‑sponsored Water Policy Forum & Dinner in Costa Mesa. The honored keynote speaker was Troy Edgar, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security—the agency responsible for ICE, FEMA, and other national‑security and disaster‑response functions. By that date, the DHS/Trump administration’s anti‑immigrant policies, its hostility toward D.E.I., its politicization of federal funding, its cuts to FEMA, its removal of climate‑change planning from federal policy, and its increasingly aggressive, brutal and legally questionable ICE enforcement practices were all well documented. DHS had also launched a recruitment campaign (July 2025) using imagery and slogans widely criticized as racist and authoritarian (or Neo-fascist). These policies have continued, most recently underscored by the killing of a Minneapolis resident by an ICE agent.

At the MWDOC event, facilitator Larry Dick, representing MWDOC, offered the following introduction for Deputy Secretary Edgar, setting the tone for the evening:

Larry Dick: Tonight as I mentioned, we are beyond delighted to welcome one of the most distinguished and influential speakers ever to join us at a water policy dinner. His presence here, given our current national security priority, is a powerful statement of his dedication to public service and to this region. When we ask Brett if he would make the ask for us, he didn’t take him long to say yes, and we appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. True. Troy Edgar serves as a deputy secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security, where he helps oversee critical operations and strategy impacting cybersecurity, emergency response, border security, and, importantly, National infrastructure, including water resilience. But before his federal service, he built his leadership foundation right here in the county. As a city council member and mayor for the City of Los Alamitos. He also served on the Orange County Sand District Board, where he rose to the position of chair, helping to guide essential infrastructure projects for the region. He’s a proud Navy veteran, a former CFO for DHS, and an executive with both public and private sector expertise. Speaking for myself, I’m delighted to see people in government that have signed the front and the back of a check. Troy’s career reflects a rare combination of local accountability and global impact. We’re so grateful to have him with us tonight, especially given these current events and the responsibilities that rest on his shoulders. Please join me in giving a warm Orange County welcome to our keynote speaker, Deputy secretary Troy Edgar.

Following the event, Metropolitan Water District Chairman Adán Ortega, reported that he attended the dinner and that Deputy Secretary Edgar:

“provided insights into the new administration’s policies and their implications for California’s future. Discussions included recent federal initiatives aimed at enhancing water infrastructure, ensuring sustainability, and addressing the unique challenges faced by our region.”

Despite these statements, none of the contradictions between DHS policy and MWD’s self-declared climate‑action and DEI commitments were acknowledged or addressed. Nor was there any mention of the escalating brutality directed at immigrant communities—communities that make up a substantial portion of the population served by MWD and MWDOC.

Question for Agency Leadership

How should Southern California ratepayers as a whole interpret such unqualified praise by the managers of its precious water supplies for the work of a federal agency, including its assistant secretary, that is demonstrably opposed to their own best interests--as officially described in MWD’s heralded Climate Adaptation Master Plan for Water (CAMP4W), including its declared commitment to equity?

This mandate upon MWD to overcome bigotry and bias includes its commitment to the state-mandated reform of its D.E.I. workplace policies.

A response is requested as soon as possible.

Thank you,
John Earl

Media Inquiry to Bob McVicker and Larry Dick

Sent to MWDOC

On June 26, the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) held its corporate‑sponsored Water Policy Forum & Dinner in Costa Mesa. The honored keynote speaker was Troy Edgar, Deputy Secretary of the Department of homeland Security—the agency responsible for ICE, FEMA, and other national‑security and disaster‑response functions. By that date, the DHS/Trump administration’s anti‑immigrant policies, its hostility toward D.E.I., its politicization of federal funding, its cuts to FEMA, its removal of climate‑change planning from federal policy, and its increasingly aggressive, brutal and legally questionable ICE enforcement practices were all well documented. DHS had also launched a recruitment campaign (July 2025) using imagery and slogans widely criticized as racist and authoritarian (or Neo-fascist). These policies have continued, most recently underscored by the killing of a Minneapolis resident by an ICE agent.

At the MWDOC event, facilitator Larry Dick, representing MWDOC, offered the following introduction for Deputy Secretary Edgar, setting the tone for the evening:

Tonight as I mentioned, we are beyond delighted to welcome one of the most distinguished and influential speakers ever to join us at a water policy dinner. His presence here, given our current national security priority, is a powerful statement of his dedication to public service and to this region. When we ask Brett if he would make the ask for us, he didn’t take him long to say yes, and we appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. True. Troy Edgar serves as a deputy secretary of the United States Department of Homeland Security, where he helps oversee critical operations and strategy impacting cybersecurity, emergency response, border security, and, importantly, National infrastructure, including water resilience. But before his federal service, he built his leadership foundation right here in the county. As a city council member and mayor for the City of Los Alamitos. He also served on the Orange County Sand District Board, where he rose to the position of chair, helping to guide essential infrastructure projects for the region. He’s a proud Navy veteran, a former CFO for DHS, and an executive with both public and private sector expertise. Speaking for myself, I’m delighted to see people in government that have signed the front and the back of a check. Troy’s career reflects a rare combination of local accountability and global impact. We’re so grateful to have him with us tonight, especially given these current events and the responsibilities that rest on his shoulders. Please join me in giving a warm Orange County welcome to our keynote speaker, Deputy secretary Troy Edgar.

Following the event, Metropolitan Water District Chairman Adán Ortega, reported that he attended the dinner and that Deputy Secretary Edgar:

“provided insights into the new administration’s policies and their implications for California’s future. Discussions included recent federal initiatives aimed at enhancing water infrastructure, ensuring sustainability, and addressing the unique challenges faced by our region.”

Despite these statements, none of the contradictions between DHS policy and MWD’s self-declared climate‑action and DEI commitments were acknowledged or addressed. Nor was there any mention of the escalating brutality directed at immigrant communities—communities that make up a substantial portion of the population served by MWD and MWDOC.

Question for Agency Leadership

How should Southern California ratepayers as a whole interpret such unqualified praise by the managers of its precious water supplies for the work of a federal agency, including its assistant secretary, that is demonstrably opposed to their own best interests--as officially described in MWD’s heralded Climate Adaptation Master Plan for Water (CAMP4W), including its declared commitment to equity?

This mandate upon MWD to overcome bigotry and bias includes its commitment to the state-mandated reform of its D.E.I. workplace policies.

Also, I have provided a complete transcript of Dir. Dick’s introduction to DHS Deputy Sec. Troy Edgar. Dir. Dick states, “His presence, given our current national security priority...”.

Question for Dir. Dick: at that time, June 26, 2025, what “current national security priority” were you referring to?

A response is requested as soon as possible.

Thank you,
John Earl
SoCal Water Wars

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This series of analytical commentaries is inspired by one of the most odious events I have witnessed in SoCal’s Water World in over 20 years, the MWDOC Water Policy Forum & Dinner, featuring keynote speaker “Hon.” Troy Edgar, held June 26, 2025, at the Westin Hotel in Costa Mesa, in Orange County.

The Forum is a regular program of the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC). Its June 2025 keynote speaker, Troy Edgar—Donald Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security—makes this particular event one that demands context. I will begin providing that context in this installment and expand on it further in the next.

Before the 2024 elections, apologists for President Donald Trump’s upcoming MAGA-fascist regime—many of whom sit on the boards of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), the San Diego County Water Authority (CWA), and their member agencies—ignored or dismissed any comparisons to Adolf Hitler, neo-Nazism, or fascism as hyperbolic and irresponsible.

Water agency staff voiced brief concerns about whether the Trump administration would continue federal funding for local projects. Yet the prevailing response has been to “wait and see”—and, in some cases, to offer high praise for whatever support might come their way.

Since Trump took office in January, Southern California’s two largest water agencies have pressed forward with MWD’s flagship Climate Adaptation Master Plant for Water (CAMP4W)—a purportedly inclusive and comprehensive science-based climate action plan promising a sustainable water future for Southern California.

But during that time, Trump has released a torrent of executive orders and policies bearing the unmistakable hallmarks of fascism. And it keeps coming—from a government less concerned with protecting its citizens from water shortages than with hunting imagined “enemies within.”

Now it is clearer than ever what Trump intends to bring forth in his promised “Golden Age” of America. He has created a regime that denies climate science and obstructs every effort to confront global warming. A regime that advances environmental destruction for the profit of corporate oligarchs while sacrificing public health. A regime that wields presidential power to silence the press, stifle academic freedom, and punish dissent, enriching the president, his family, and his oligarchic allies through extortion. In order to revive historically discriminatory practices and tighten its grip on power, the government dismantles federal agencies entrusted with safeguarding public health and financial stability. It weaponizes federal law enforcement to serve Trump’s power‑hungry whims in ways Nixon would envy. It terrorizes immigrants, both citizens and non citizens, by police-state style invasions of peaceful neighborhoods. In general, it seeks to strip away civil liberties and voting rights—not to protect democracy, but to extinguish it.

Each Trump decree carries the same message—the full power of the federal government will be bent to serve the ambitions of one man, his chosen regime, and its allies—regardless of the devastating consequences for ordinary people.

And yet, with full knowledge of the nihilist ideology driving Trump’s regime—and of how completely it contradicts the stated mission of CAMP4W, along with the concepts of equity and environmental justice it claims to promote—Southern California’s public water agencies respond only with complacency and complicity, the bedfellows of rising fascism.

No apologies are needed to compare the rise of Trump’s MAGA movement in the U.S.A. to Adolf Hitler’s conquest over the German Republic in 1930s. But I have struggled for months—through research and countless drafts—over how much time I should spend giving my readers, many of whom don’t need it, a basic history lesson.

I suspect that those readers who are either complacent or complicit with MAGA-fascism are not so much ignorant of history as they are lacking in empathy for the human condition and appreciation for our fragile, hard-won democratic republic.

If we forget that democracy is sustained by the moral courage of ordinary people, then we risk surrendering it to those—like the Trumpistas—who would exploit fear and racism for the power to overthrow our democratic republic and sack it for all it’s worth to them.

Next: a short recap of Hitler history and an introduction to the man who MWDOC director Larry Dick proudly introduced to a large audience of water buffaloes as “one of the most distinguished and influential speakers to ever join us at a water policy dinner,” adding that “His presence here, given our current national security priority, is a powerful statement of his dedication to public service and to this region.”

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Then, in late January 2021, I relocated there from Huntington Beach with several members of my family who followed their jobs to the South Bay.

Although work was the main reason we moved to Chula Vista, we were more than ready to leave behind the city we’d loved and lived in for decades—a place with the best metro beach in the world, the finest pier on the West Coast, and the most beautiful city park in Orange County. It was also home to local activists who, starting in the early 2000s, took on and defeated in 2022 a $700 billion multinational corporation that tried to push one of the biggest water scams in California history: a massive ocean desalination plant slated for the city’s southeast corner.

Why would we be happy to leave all that behind? Because, tragically, beginning with the 2014 elections, the Huntington Beach City Council entered a slow but steady decline—one that accelerated dramatically during the pandemic. What had once been a vibrant, principled civic body devolved into political chaos, performative idiocracy, and, by 2020, full-blown MAGA-style authoritarianism.

San Diego County’s South Bay felt like a refuge of relative political sanity. The region’s recent shift—from red to reliably blue—was evident across the Board of Supervisors and the city councils of San Diego, Chula Vista, National City, and Imperial Beach. Democrats were, and still are, tenuously in control, seeming to offer a welcome contrast to the ideological freefall we’d just left behind.

San Diego bound

On the day we finished unloading boxes—scattered chaotically across our new rental home—everything looked promising. Perched high on a hill, we had a backyard view that stretched from Tijuana to the bay, with the downtown San Diego skyline rising in the distance.

One of the first things I noticed was the scarcity of manicured lawns, especially west of the 805 freeway. It’s a familiar equity issue, exacerbated by the steep cost of ocean desalination water—costs passed down to local ratepayers by the San Diego County Water Authority.

Chula Vista, with a population of 279,000, is the second-largest city in San Diego County. Its neighbor to the north, San Diego, is the largest, home to 1.4 million residents.

Chula Vista is a diverse border city, rich in culture and community. Immigrants live peacefully alongside a handful of flag-waving Trump supporters—at least that was the case in our neighborhood.

One of my first steps was to get a clearer picture of the local political landscape. I learned that Chula Vista is divided into four council districts, with a mayor elected directly by the people. At the time, the mayor was a Democrat, and three of the four council seats were held by Democrats, with one seat occupied by a Republican.

Public image

Chula Vista’s elected officials and community leaders have struggled for years to form the city’s identity and public image. They wanted Chula Vista to be seen as “more than a mere bedroom community [existing] in the shadows of San Diego.”

To help fulfil that dream, the Chula Vista City Council addressed the economic inequities faced by many of the city’s residents by vowing to expand their educational and business opportunities.

The plan included bringing a four-year university to Chula Vista and officially making it (the city) a “welcoming city” with help from Welcoming America, a non-profit that certifies cities with “inclusive policies, practices, and norms that enable all residents to live, thrive, and contribute fully — including immigrants.”

Chula Vista was officially declared a Welcoming City in 2019 and its elected council approved a plan to meet the standards of equity and inclusivity it was expected to uphold.

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More recently, the city passed an important milestone when Gov. Gavin Newsom released a hold on 383 acres of city land that the state had reserved for housing. The land can now become the foundation for a university.

The governor’s decision was “a monumental step forward towards addressing a wide array of inequities that South Bay residents face daily,” said state Senator and former Chula Vista city councilmember, Steve Padilla.

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Real-time crime center

In the meantime, the Chula Vista Police Department had been quietly building a mysterious “real-time crime center,” intended as an intelligence gathering hub that uses the latest high-tech surveillance technology, including automatic license plate readers (ALPR) and drones, to fight crime.

Back in 2007 the CVPD had already attached ALPR to some patrol cars (the current number is 4) in order to help find and track criminal suspects involved in car thefts and other crimes.

In 2017, without official city discussion or notice, the CVPD used its discretion to change contractors to Vigilant Solutions, “the largest (license plate reader) sharing network in the United States, if not the world,” the company claimed.

In 2018, a PR firm brought the CVPD’s new drone program (ironically permitted by a special waiver from the Trump administration) worldwide renown, “elevating its Police Department into the role of global consultant.”

According to the city’s police, the purpose of the drones, which can read a license plate from two miles away, is not surveillance but to increase efficiency and public safety by functioning as first responders.

The drones feed officers’ cell phones with previews of crime and accident scenes, helping them to broadly or in detail survey the area for context, look for crime suspects, determine if they are armed, and find missing persons.

Not so welcoming a city

Then, on Dec. 6, 2020, a month after city council elections, the Union-Tribune published an expose that would lead the city’s mayor and staff to drop Chula Vista’s Welcoming City credentials.

For the past three years, the U-T reported, the CVPD had allowed Vigilant Solutions to share its license plate data—including locations, drive times, dates, and license plate numbers, as well as other identifying information (excluding home addresses and names)—with over 800 law enforcement agencies across the country that would potentially use the data to deport undocumented immigrants, including ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and the California Highway Patrol.

The next day, my councilmember-elect, Andrea Cardenas (4th District), issued a statement decrying “systemic inequities, and a long history of institutional racism that have created distrust between our community and law enforcement agencies.”

She called upon the city council and the CVPD “to put an immediate stop to this data collection” and to work with “every stakeholder involved in this process to ensure that we truly uphold the vision of what it means to be a welcoming city.”

Immigrant rights and civil liberties activists were also outraged and called for an end to the ALPR program or at the very least the creation of a transparent system of checks and balances to prevent the threat to civil liberties related to data sharing.

It was in that context that shortly after moving to the city I joined several highly esteemed local civil liberties activists in a Zoom meeting with Councilmember Cardenas to talk about how to ensure that there would be a transparent approach to dealing with Chula Vista’s latest claim to fame.

Next: My meeting with Andrea. Plus, I will reconnect with historical stories I posted previously in my attempt to explain how Surf City took a quantum leap into MAGAland.

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Related:

Surf City Sentinel

Oak View Surveillance Expanded

I have lived in Huntington Beach for 26 years, which is long enough to know that Oak View, the low-income immigrant neighborhood smack dab in the middle of the city, has problems with crime, up to and including gang activity and murder…

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a year ago · 5 likes · Mark Bixby

By Randy Kokal

The "No Kings" protest in Huntington Beach was large, loud, and peaceful. People of all ages, backgrounds, and colors attended, but, quite honestly, I’ve never seen so many older white people at a protest in my life! When thousands of them turn out in opposition, it’s a clear sign that their "hearts and minds" have been lost. And in Huntington Beach, losing the older white vote means the battle is already over.

People were outraged by the President’s violations of the Constitution—furious over kidnappings, deportations, concentration camps, military deployment in Los Angeles, relentless lies, yet another push for tax cuts benefiting the wealthy, and escalating political violence, from the firebombing of the Pennsylvania governor’s residence to the attempted murder of Paul Pelosi and the outright killing of Democratic politicians in Minnesota. And the list goes on.

Counter-protesters were present, but they were outnumbered by at least 100 to one. We positioned ourselves near 6th Street and PCH. The protest extended three or four blocks in one direction and at least six in the other. For a while, cars drove by, honking continuously in support. The crowd was so large that protesters lined both sides of the street, with those on the beach side standing two or three deep.

The MAGA contingent mostly kept to the area between the pier’s crosswalks. Their small numbers were easy to spot, as they carried oversized flags stacked four or five layers deep, seemingly to compensate.

The crowd’s atmosphere was one of excitement, anticipation, and calm. Peace signs flashed throughout, and, unexpectedly, many people walked by, handing out free water and snacks.

It was Flag Day, and American flags were displayed in large numbers. The protest was set to run from noon to 3 p.m., and as it neared its end, a group of young Latino men shook hands with the crowd, thanking us individually for being there. The gratitude in their eyes was unmistakable.

Many of the protest signs were entertaining. The only attempts at violence I saw came from young men on e-bikes who lit firecrackers, threw them at the protesters, and then fled.

There was no military presence, and the police maintained an appropriate level of security. About ten water trucks—presumably equipped with water cannons—drove through the streets. After the event ended, police reported at least one arrest: a man with a criminal record, carrying a weapon, was apprehended after threatening to "knock out" a protester.

A brief moment of excitement unfolded when a car at a stoplight suddenly sprang a coolant leak, sending steam and fluid everywhere and causing traffic to back up. The driver, visibly frantic, hesitated, knowing that continuing to drive would only worsen the damage. Suddenly, a half dozen young men emerged from the crowd, calmly guiding her on how to position the shift lever and ignition key. Assuring her of their help, they pushed the car to safety. Together, we moved it about three blocks and parked it near the police substation.

Overall, it was one of the most enjoyable protests I’ve ever attended—five stars, would absolutely attend again. The crowd was diverse, in high spirits, and united in the belief that America would remain free, refusing to be ruled by a king.

This scene unfolded repeatedly in thousands of cities across the nation, involving millions of Americans. And where was the President? In D.C., holed up in his makeshift bunker, parading real-life "toy soldiers."

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Michael Gates, former Huntington Beach City Attorney, advanced his journey toward MAGA sainthood with his February appointment as a deputy attorney general in President Trump’s Department of Justice. He works in the civil rights division, where he will further MAGA’s anti-civil-rights agenda. First elected city attorney in 2014 and re-elected twice, Gates leveraged his position to politicize the office and help establish a unanimous seven-member MAGA majority on the city council—a transformation begun by others as early as 2009.

MAGA City Journal, entry #2:

One issue that surfaced ominously in Surf City’s 2009 charter review meetings was whether the city attorney should be elected or appointed by the city council or city administrator.

It was triggered in part by a fierce debate among local political forces over how to control the city’s budget when revenues were low and the city faced cuts in essential services; in this case, how to take care of the city’s infrastructure shortfall and deal with public employee pension costs that the city was obligated by labor agreements to pay.

A popular local Republican blog, Red County, published by Chip Hanlon, and councilmembers Devin Dwyer, Keith Bohr (a Democrat) and Don Hansen, were fostering public discontent with McGrath over her interpretation of Section 617 of the City Charter.

Added to the charter in 2002 by a vote of the people, Section 617 mandated spending 15 percent of the city’s budget revenue on infrastructure. Prior to 2010, HB city councils interpreted Section 617 to include debt service for financing bonds as allowable infrastructure spending—which Hanlon and the city council members opposed.

But in February, 2010, McGrath gave the council a legal opinion supporting the interpretation that under Section 617 infrastructure included debt-service payments. City Administrator Fred Wilson warned that, without that interpretation, cutting public safety services would be inevitable.

McGrath’s independent legal opinion drew sharp criticism from Scott Baugh, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party and architect of its 'Second American Revolution.' Months earlier, in an emotional speech to the party’s governing committee, Baugh declared, 'These are times that try men’s souls.'

On the verge of tears, Baugh announced the revolution and issued strict orders to purge the party of apostate Republicans—those backed by public employee unions who fail to take action against inflated public employee pensions.

McGrath pledged not to accept public employee union money. But Baugh, much like Trump today, made it clear he didn’t want just any Republicans in office, just “reformers” who will follow the straight and narrow path of “limited government” no matter the political risks.

Hanlon rallied to Baugh’s call for revolution with fiery critiques on his blog. He demonized McGrath, placing her at the heart of what he labeled the “Surf City Swindle,” accusing the city council, with her support, of diverting mandated funds for other purposes.”

He dismissed McGrath’s legal opinion as “tortured” and “mindless,” but he did not reference any wording in Section 617 that excludes debt service for infrastructure from the 15 percent set-aside of city funds. Nor did he challenge her case law citations.

Hanlon warned McGrath, a fellow Republican, that she would face “the strongest challenger she could imagine this fall,” describing the candidate as “extremely close in [Republican] party politics, connected to the Rohrabachers, highly recognizable, and deeply tied to the donor community.”

Hanlon claimed McGrath would faint when she learned who it was. “It’s a stunning development,” Hanlon said, “and we’ll be watching like hawks for an official announcement on this one.”

McGrath, who ran unopposed in the previous election, was concerned, but she didn’t give in.

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Ostensibly, DOGE was created on January 20, Inauguration Day, by Trump’s executive order, to “shrink the size of the federal government and cut off any waste or inefficiency found in its operations”—source, Newsweek.

In reality, DOGE is part of a MAGA-fascist, oligarchic, chaos-producing shake-down machine designed to disembowel the democratic republic of the United States of America and to endlessly increase the wealth and power of oligarchs—at the expense of the rest of us, even if it means eventually killing all life on Earth.

On March 11, DOGE (Musk that is) announced on X, according to Newsweek, that “After three weeks, >200,000 credit cards have been deactivated. Great progress this past week …”

By March 25, as reported by U.S. News & World Report, almost 300,000 “government credit cards have been canceled or reduced to a $1 credit limit”; again, excluding cards for disaster relief, subject to Elon Musk’s permission.

U.S. News wisely recommended that any federal employees whose government credit cards were discontinued restrain themselves from using their own credit cards for work-related purchases.

Like other federal agencies under attack by Trump’s policies, the USFS already has other troubles caused by massive budget freezes and thousands of layoffs, with more cuts coming soon.

As reported by Politico on April 7, 700 of the Forest Service’s highly-trained firefighters and fire prevention specialists—the “backbone” of the agency’s 10,000 member firefighting force—were abruptly terminated in a February “Valentine’s Day massacre.”

Forest Service employees nationwide, interviewed by Politico, reported that thousands of DOGE staff cuts have had far-reaching effects, redirecting the agency’s focus from environmental stewardship to industry and firefighting.

Some Forest Service employees told Politico that “This agency is no longer serving its mission” and that it was facing internal chaos, “which is sort of the point,” according to another employee.

The United States Forest Service (USFS), founded in 1905, operates under the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Its 35,000 employees oversee 193 million acres of forests and grasslands across 43 states, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. The USFS website describes the agency as a global leader in research and a model for sustainable forest management, as well as the conservation of natural and cultural resources on public lands.

Recently, SoCal Water Wars connected with a Forest Service employee working full-time in the Western United States. The employee, who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation, provided a detailed written statement outlining a variety of “unforeseen” effects of DOGE’s “well-intentioned” credit card restrictions on acquiring essential equipment for daily operations. T

The statement, lightly edited for clarity, is shared below. — John Earl, Editor, SoCal Water Wars

DOGE: When ‘oversight’ backfires

Written by a United States Forest Service ranger working in the western United States of America.

The restriction of credit cards for U.S. Forest Service (USFS) personnel has triggered unforeseen consequences, hampering efficiency of forest operations and impacting local communities. The changes have caused delays in essential tasks, disrupting routine maintenance, and imposed financial strain on local vendors.

Previously, each forest district, typically overseeing around 100 personnel across 2–6 sub-districts, had 6–10 credit cards assigned to specific employees for purchases to ensure smooth daily operations.

For example, districts would use the cards for essential purchases, such as office supplies, T-posts for maintenance, vault toilet services, equipment fuel, physicals required for firefighting, newspaper notices, trash disposal, and safety gear.

But these credit cards have been eliminated due to recent policy changes mandated by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Now, all purchases must go through a single employee at the forest level who is responsible for managing orders for multiple districts, creating major challenges for USFS personnel.

Districts are no longer able to quickly obtain the supplies and resources needed to do their work. As a result, essential tasks such as clearing downed trees, performing emergency repairs, and maintaining forest health have been delayed or halted due to a lack of necessary supplies, like chainsaw fuel.

The decision to centralize purchasing under a single forest-level employee was made to prevent fraud and misuse of government funds. However, there was no historical evidence of significant fraud or mismanagement. Previously, each purchase underwent secondary review to minimize inappropriate spending. USFS personnel were also trained to handle budgets responsibly, ensuring all purchases were justified and properly documented.

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The policy shift has caused critical operational inefficiencies and mounting costs, severely hampering the Forest Service’s ability to function effectively. With supply purchases bottlenecked under a single employee for multiple districts, lead times have become alarmingly unpredictable. Items once readily accessible are now delayed, undermining the agency’s ability to respond swiftly to emergencies or perform essential maintenance.

These setbacks jeopardize forest health and public safety, with delays in acquiring tools like chainsaw fuel, creating dangerous vulnerabilities. Compounding the issue, the mandatory use of GSA Advantage does not necessarily mean lower costs, as the program offers limited options and unknowable delivery schedules compared to local vendors, further straining resources.

The financial impact of these changes goes far beyond the Forest Service. Rural "gateway" communities near national forests, parks, and wilderness areas are intricately tied to federal agencies like the USFS for their economic stability, social fabric, and cultural identity.

These communities depend on the federal government not only for direct employment but also for driving their local economies through tourism, land management, and resource access. As a lifeblood to these regions, disruptions to USFS operations jeopardize the livelihoods and well-being of these interconnected communities.

These challenges underscore the broader consequences of policy decisions that, while aiming to improve financial oversight, overlook the practical realities of field operations and the importance of maintaining local economic ties.

The restriction of credit card use for USFS personnel, though well-intentioned, has disrupted the ability of the agency to effectively carry out its vital work and has created ripple effects that extend beyond the federal budget to affect communities and service providers.

Recognizing Gates’ fervent devotion to the MAGA movement, the latest MAGA administration to occupy the White House enlisted him two months ago to help usher in the Golden Age of America promised by President Donald Trump in his inauguration speech.

Gates will serve as a deputy attorney general in the putative king’s purified United States Department of Justice, within its disemboweled civil rights division, under Harmeet K. Dhillon. Paradoxically, at a press conference last February, Gates promised to advance Trump’s “America First” agenda and “fight to restore law and order throughout the country.”

Since his 2014 election as city attorney, when he unseated long-time incumbent Jennifer McGrath, Gates has relentlessly honed his skills, including narcissism and gross idolatry, to perfectly align with Trump’s America-First agenda.

During his tenure as city attorney, Gates mentored MAGA aspirants, transforming a moderate city council into a seven-member MAGA bloc. Their agenda encompassed a full MAGA menu of medieval culture wars, anti-DEI bigotry, Holocaust denialism, book banning, church-state entanglement, xenophobia, authoritarianism, incompetence, and unprecedented cronyism.

Thanks to its newfound glory, Huntington Beach has traded its global fame as a beach-party riot hotspot for the prestigious title of America’s premier mini-MAGA enclave. It now stands as a shining beacon of small-scale nationalism, where QAnon crackpots meet policy proposals.

Since sainthood requires a posthumous résumé, meticulously documenting the deeds of putative saints becomes paramount. To aid the aspiring St. Michael II in his celestial campaign, I’ll occasionally offer readers glimpses into the depths of his political soul—insights they may one day forward to the Vatican, assuming humanity still has a future to ponder its saints.

Gates, divinely rising to Washington and beyond, is only part of the whole story of how Surf City transitioned into a MAGA-fascist stronghold. For that, we have to look also at other events in Orange County and Huntington Beach history, including the role of the city attorney’s office in governing Huntington Beach.

The Huntington Beach City Attorney is officially tasked with representing the city by advising its mayor, city council, and departments, as well as prosecuting or defending legal matters on the city's behalf. The full scope of the City Attorney’s powers and duties can be found in Section 309 of the city charter.

Since 1957, Huntington Beach voters have elected their city attorney, and historically, that’s how they wanted it regardless of their party. Gail Hutton defeated incumbent city attorney Don Bonfa in 1978 and remained in office until her retirement in 2002. Jennifer McGrath succeeded her, winning 48.2 percent of the vote in a four-way race, and ran unopposed in her 2006 reelection.

In November, 2010, she was challenged by one opponent, T. Gabe Houston, a private defense attorney who officially signed his candidate’s papers at the City Clerk’s office on Aug. 6, the last day to file, giving him little time to organize a serious campaign.

McGrath mounted a strong challenge to Houston’s eligibility to run for office, though not strong enough to keep him off the ballot. From the Republican Party’s perspective, Houston had two potential wedge issues working in his favor: city charter reform—particularly shifting the city attorney’s office from an elected to an appointed role—and limiting the influence of the city’s unions.

Houston’s eligibility controversy revealed attempts by Huntington Beach City Council members and other local figures to undermine McGrath, take control of the city attorney’s office, and push forward the Orange County GOP’s agenda.

I will talk about that in MAGA City Journal, entry #2.

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SoCal Water Wars

MAGA majority turns Surf City into a fascistic Holy Land

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3 years ago · 7 likes · John Earl

There are “challenges with alcohol” there, he said, referring to the city’s infamously high DUI rate—1st place in its size range in the state and 7th out of all California cities, but those challenges show that we are “victims of our success.”

People who tell him that they prefer downtown the way it used to be must have a “selective memory,” he said, or are remembering the “Beaver days,” referring to the idyllic community that existed downtown in the 50s and 60s but perished in subsequent economic decline.

“I’ve been around since 87,” Bohr reminisced, going back to his days as a city planner. “There were a lot of boarded up ground-floor retail stores [downtown]. There was a former deputy sheriff arrested for running a teenage prostitution ring out of the upstairs of the 200 block of Main Street, where the parking structure is now. There were devil worshippers living there in the single-room occupancies. I think Huntington Beach has improved a lot every year.”

True, downtown Huntington Beach was badly in need of repair, both structurally and socially, 24 years ago—although Bohr’s story about devil worshippers is more urban legend than fact (more on that later).

The city’s population had grown from around 11,000 in 1960 to around 176,000 in 1983—when downtown redevelopment officially kicked off. In an interview with this reporter published in the Nov. 13, 1987 issue of the Huntington Beach News, the new City Administrator, Paul Cook, commented on the aftermath of the population explosion of the early 60s.

“Basically, the city grew and there just isn’t enough density to keep it [downtown] going on its own,” he explained.

Before that change, the city’s small population was centered on Main Street, so that’s where people shopped. “So they [downtown businesses] had a captive audience. As the city grew and the shopping center at Five Points went up, as well as other shopping centers, the competition grew too great for Main Street,” Cook explained.

Progress in other areas of the city brought economic failure and boarded up buildings to the downtown.

Transients frequented the area and lived in some of those buildings, including the old Surf Theater that closed its doors in 1986. There was a lot full of junk cars and drug deals were easy to come by downtown.

Fifty-one buildings that hadn’t been upgraded for earthquake safety—some were built in the 1920s and 30s—speckled the area.

The downtown’s bad reputation only made it harder for the remaining businesses to survive. Landowners, business owners, city residents and city planners all agreed that something had to be done, but agreeing on a plan was another thing.

Tourist Destination

Under the direction of City Administrator Charles Thompson and the city council (also acting as the redevelopment agency), the city’s first solution was to turn downtown into a tourist destination. A “first-rate, high-quality hotel” with 300 rooms, a 40,000 square-foot conference room and a 20,000 square-foot public plaza located on the south corner of PCH and Main(on 10 lots sold to the developer for $1.00 apiece) was part of the plan.

But that plan had its obstacles. A news story in the Register bragged that “Several hotel chains are now actively interested in the project.” In fact, not a single hotel company was interested. So city planners downsized the project into a 150-180 room hotel that also never appeared at that location.

Pierside Village, a beachside shopping center, was another key to the city’s downtown redevelopment plan. It was to be located on the beach south of the pier, with a 4 foot high wooden deck extending out onto the sand. A tri-level underground parking structure with a major restaurant on top was to be located on the State owned beach north of the pier.

City planners were so excited about Pierside Village that they neglected to tell the council about changes they had made to the plan—including giving the State Parks and Recreation Department the false impression that the council had approved the changes.

No matter, because when the council found out that they had been blindsided by planners they still instructed them to proceed apace, even though the proposed changes had not been passed by the Planning Commission as required by law.

Opposition

When Bohr first started working for the planning department in 1987, the city was in the middle of a pitched battle with downtown property owners and organized residents who were opposed to redevelopment plans that they considered to be grandiose, poorly planned, unfair and detrimental to the quality of life.

Eager to get past stubborn downtown land owners, the city council also ignored a previous resolution requiring that two-thirds of the landowners in a project area agree voluntarily to sell their property to the Redevelopment Agency before the other third of the owners could be forced to do so through eminent domain.

Some downtown property owners felt that they were being railroaded by the city. They would form a PAC in April, 1988 to hold out for better prices on the forced sale of their land.

But the battles over redevelopment weren’t confined to the downtown.

In July, 1987—about the same time the Pierside Village plan came forth—a raucous crowd of over 300 residents and property owners came to city hall and opposed a proposal to declare 508 acres of land along five miles of Beach Boulevard between Edinger and Atlanta Avenues as blighted so it could be declared a redevelopment area.

The meeting before the city council/redevelopment agency became so intense that the stenographer hired to record the event broke down, crying out “Wait a minute, I can’t take it anymore,” and walked off the job.

After seven hours of hearings, at 2:55 a.m., the Beach Blvd. redevelopment project was defeated 5 – 2.

Back to Beaver

Cook took a much different approach to downtown redevelopment than his predecessor, eschewing the big hotels concept for a “village” atmosphere that would redefine downtown from that time forward. Cook wanted to return to something like Bohr’s so-called Beaver days.

“I don’t see tourism down there as being viable, especially 12 months a year,” Cook told this reporter. “I remember when I came here in 62, Main Street was a pretty private little street with men’s clothing stores and barber shops and village stores and everything was fine.”

Cook got kudos from supporters and critics of redevelopment alike, but public concerns about Pierside, traffic, parking and the city’s heavy-handed use of eminent domain remained strong.

In a drastic attempt to change public opinion and push downtown redevelopment through, the city released a seven-minute video depicting the downtown as having the highest crime rate of any area in the city. It was a haven for drug use, Satanic and Nazi gangs, and “slumlords” who violated health, safety and seismic codes. Pictures of similar buildings that were destroyed in the recent Whittier earthquake were added to make the case for downtown redevelopment.

Cook said he was surprised by the unsanitary living conditions in the downtown buildings or “flop houses” that were depicted in the video. But not all of the code violations were a surprise to city officials.

As had been revealed previously by this reporter in the HB News, city officials, including the council, had deliberately held back on seismic enforcement on buildings whose owners cooperated with its redevelopment plans. Suddenly, however, the city was determined to convert from discriminatory enforcement to all-out enforcement.

Satan’s Home

To back the city’s claims that downtown was occupied by a Satanic cult, the video showed clips of Satanic literature found in a vacant and recently fire-damaged home, as well as wall graffiti depicting pentagrams, the pope, and the Grim Reaper.

It turned out that the “Satanic” house belonged to Frank Mola, who developed the Charter Center on Warner and Beach and who had been cited numerous times in the past for code violations.

City officials claimed that redevelopment would create a downtown environment that would discourage visitation by all types of gangs and diminish drug use and crime there.

But the city’s gang specialist offered no evidence that the “Satanic” findings were evidence of cult infestation rather than individual activity and admitted that actual gang related incidents in the downtown area had been few in the past five years.

Anti-traffic crusade

Meanwhile, concern about development induced traffic problems had swept across much of Orange County. Huntington Beach voters gathered signatures and placed the Citizens Sensible Growth and Traffic Initiative (CSGT) on the Nov. 1988 ballot. Its purpose was to prohibit any future development that would increase traffic or adversely affect the quality of life in the development area.

The CSGT was a clone of a county ballot measure that was placed on the June ballot. Similar measures were placed on the ballot in Seal Beach, San Clemente, San Juan Capistrano and Costa Mesa. Eventually each of these campaigns would fail at the polls, but before a business backed advertising campaign took hold they were favored by the vast majority of voters.

With public pressure and self-doubt mounting, the city hired a development consultant to reevaluate the downtown. The report concluded that the city’s original plans weren’t marketable, challenged the viability of its parking and traffic circulation plans and recommended a 180 degree turn away from attracting the tourist trade toward an emphasis on residential and complimentary commercial (mixed-use) development.

In a letter to the city council, Cook emphasized the report’s main conclusions:

o Long lasting commercial revitalization of Main Street was dependent upon creating a significant resident neighborhood, an approach that had proven successful in cities across the country.

o Return Main Street to a two-way artery.

o “A more sizeable and consistent household population base is required to turn the area into a legitimate residential neighborhood where people actually live and work rather than just a place to ‘hang out and party.’”

o Retail on Main Street should “enhance the marketability and competitiveness of the larger housing component,” and should be oriented toward local residents’ needs rather than seasonal visitors.

o An 8 – 10,000 square foot “ranch style” market should be located on Walnut and Main.

o There should be 25,000 square feet of retail on Walnut and 6th streets.

o A four screen movie theater for PCH and Main.

o Perq’s bar should have a second level restaurant that would also serve as a “quality nightclub or comedy club.”

o A 15-20 room bed and breakfast facility would be a good fit for the village concept, but Cook noted that “a hotel is not one their suggested uses nor is it one of mine.”

In April, 1988, the city council unanimously approved conceptual plans for creating a “village atmosphere” downtown instead of the hotel and tourist oriented destination it had previously planned for. Most conspicuous among the changes was the elimination of the 300-room hotel. The Pierside Village, which the city agreed would not help revitalize the portion of downtown on the inland side of PCH, remained in the city’s plans.

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This is the Battle Hymn of Saving our Democratic Republic written more or less to the beat of Julia Ward Howe’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic” (based on “John Brown’s Song”). Feel free to make your own changes or additions. Leave them in comments or message me on Substack if you want me to consider them for publication here. To get into the maximally patriotic mood, play the instrumental sound recording either before or as you read the words below. Down further, there’s another, more lively, instrumental version if you prefer that.

Mine eyes have seen the gory of the flaming (Fascist) Beast.
He's trampling out the vintage where the laws of man are stored.
He hath loosed His hateful lightning just as if He were our Lord.
His lies are marching on!!

Glory! Glory! Beat that Felon!
Glory! Glory! Beat that Felon!
Glory! Glory! Beat that Felon!
Our freedom marches on!!

We have heard His racist rantings against the Woke and the DEI’s
He hates hard-working immigrants who He smears with dirty lies
He has loosed Elon’s greasy fingers to peruse our personal files
While he makes his Nazi sieg heils!
His lies are marching on!!

Glory! Glory! Beat that Racist!
Glory! Glory! Beat that Racist!
Glory! Glory! Beat that Racist!
Our freedom marches on!!

We have seen Him mock the wild-fires of a thousand family homes.
Yet they builded Him an altar on Fox News by garden gnomes:
And we hear His greedy ranting with every worker that he bones:
His lies are marching on!!

Glory! Glory! Beat that Pussy Grabber!
Glory! Glory! Beat that Pussy Grabber!
Glory! Glory! Beat that Pussy Grabber!
Our freedom marches on!!

We have seen der MAGA Führer as he beat the mighty press
Who once dared to call out His lies and then they put them all to rest
And they challenged His greedy goal of burning up nature’s trees
Now they cower on bended knees

Glory! Glory! Beat that Traitor!
Glory! Glory! Beat that Traitor!
Glory! Glory! Beat that Traitor!
Our freedom marches on!!

We have heard His fiery gospel writ in words of MAGA prose!
As he deals with his condemners, the Constitution He blows!
We must stop the Fascist Beast from darkening freedom's light,
And NEVER GIVE UP THE FIGHT!

Glory! Glory! Beat that Fascist!
Glory! Glory! Beat that Fascist!
Glory! Glory! Beat that Fascist!
Our freedom marches on!!

So now my friends you know—our future is all up to us.
Whether to defeat The Fascist Beast or to swallow all his deadly puss.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the (Fascist) Beast in flight;
We ALL MUST STAND and FIGHT!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Freedom marches on!!!!

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Defeating The Fascist Beast is about me, John Earl, and others doing our best to help defeat The Fascist Beast, Donald Trump, and his cult of MAGA-fascist followers.

I don't know if victory will come in two years, four years, or even within my lifetime (I am 70 years old). But I want my children, grandchildren, and anyone else who stumbles upon my writings to know that I cared enough about them to take action. I wanted to make life better for them than it would have been if I, and millions of others, hadn't tried.

And I know that there are millions of other parents and grandparents who feel the same way I do.

Besides being a grandfather, I am a journalist who has lived in Southern California for most of my life. I currently reside in San Diego County. I previously lived in Los Angeles and Orange County, spending 1984 to 2021 in Huntington Beach.

During my thirty-seven years there, I witnessed the city government oscillate between moderate and conservative. However, starting with the pandemic, it rapidly shifted to a full seven-member council of MAGA neo-fascists. Their relentless culture wars and cronyism morally and financially crippled the city, serving as a stark demonstration of what America is becoming under Trump.

I also publish the newsletter SoCal Water Wars on Substack, where you can learn more about me and my journalism background.

DTFB is evolving, but its main purpose is to examine how we allowed the MAGA fascists to take power and how we can take it away from them as soon as possible, no matter how long that takes. We must never give up.

If Democratic Party politicians want to act like leaders of a real opposition party, that's great—welcome aboard the freedom train. But if you continue standing around doing nothing—perhaps because you still think you have a lock on power in places like San Diego County, and can play your own crony games while MAGA fires burn all around you—then you are part of the problem.

On DTFB, I will be crossposting a wide variety of articles from other Substack writers who effectively address the MAGA-fascist takeover of the federal government, its effects, and how to work together to stop it. I will also provide links to relevant articles published outside of Substack's boundaries. Guest writers will be welcome. Additionally, I intend to provide links to and reviews of various organizing efforts in SoCal, other states, nationally, and internationally that are dedicated to fighting the rise of neo-fascism wherever it occurs.

Gradually, I will incorporate more of my own original reporting, focusing on DTFB's purpose throughout SoCal, with significant coverage of Orange County, especially Huntington Beach, and San Diego County, particularly the South Bay area near the Mexican border.

Since I have spent much of the past 20 years writing about SoCal water politics, I will highlight the actual and potential effects of MAGA politics on California's water management, climate change, and environmental policies. We've already seen horrible indications of this in Donald Trump’s threats and lies, coinciding with the LA wildfires.

More to come as it happens.

On December 7, 2016 I posted my article, “Surf City commissioner pushes Jewish-Marxist conspiracy theory” in Surf City Voice, the predecessor publication to SoCal Water Wars.

The article caused “a storm of criticisms” at the time that led to the forced “resignation” of Michael Hoskinson from the city planning commission on which he served under then city-councilmember Erik Peterson.

In December 2022 Gracey Van Der Mark and three other newly elected hard-core MAGA partisans, Tony Strickland, Pat Burns, and Casey McKeon became the majority on the seven-member Huntington Beach City Council.

Strickland was voted by his fellow partisans to be mayor for the year and Van Der Mark was chosen for mayor pro-tem, eschewing the council’s traditional (but not always followed) non-partisan rotational process for selecting the mayor.

It was the self-proclaimed Fab-4’s first of many acts of cronyism.

Van Der Mark quickly appointed Michael Hoskinson as vice-chair of the city’s Citizen Participation Advisory Board. The board advises the council on dispersion of federal Community Development Block Grant funds for housing, infrastructure, micro-businesses, and community services in low to moderate income communities.

In December 2023 Van Der Mark was chosen by her MAGA partners to take a turn as mayor. In her acceptance speech she thanked key people who helped her rise to the symbolic top of Surf City’s political hierarchy, including Hoskinson.

“I could never have made it without my family, friends and support of our amazing community, including Michael Gates, Kelly Gates, Mike Hoskinson, and Cari Swan,” she said.

Hoskinson’s political reprieve adds to our understanding of Van Der Mark’s extreme right-wing ideology. It also indicates what the future will bring for Huntington Beach if the MAGA majority, plus City Attorney Michael Gates, remains in control.

Gracey’s Trials and Tribulations

Van Der Mark’s rise to the mayor’s position brought rejoicing from her followers, many of whom came to hear their MAGA pastor, Joe Pedick, the Council’s ex-officio chaplain, praise her godliness in the invocation.

“Lord, you said in Proverbs 29, you said when the righteous are in authority the people rejoice,” he hummed. “So Lord, we rejoice. Because Lord, when the right people are in authority it brings great joy.”

Pedick, whom God regularly advises by telling him whatever he wants to hear, said that God appoints people to government as his ministers and that they must do “things that are good and not evil” according to “the sure word of God that is true,” presumably as extrapolated from the Bible by Pedick.

Thanking God for Gracey, he asked “that we as the church, we as amen people, Lord, would always remember to keep her in our prayers. Because Lord, we know that there is a battle that takes place, that we pray that you Lord would prompt us to pray that she is always doing things that are right.”

There should be no doubt, even among non believers, that Gracey has gone through trials and tribulations—both before and after God appointed her to the city council—due to her ties to neo-fascists and at least one future Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol rioter.

Among them was “Baked Alaska” who was kicked off of Twitter in 2016 for using his account to “send out the so-called 14 Words, a popular phrase among neo-Nazis, and posed the question in December 2016: ‘Internet: Why do you want to gas the Jews?’”, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Other evidence against her includes video links (long since deleted) posted on her YouTube channel back in 2017 on a playlist she titled Holocaust Hoax Exposed?

The list included the videos Holocaust Hoax Exposed and Marching to Zion, according to news reports, produced by another God-knowing pastor, the notorious anti-Semite Steven Anderson.

Here’s what the Anti-Defamation League said about Anderson’s anti-Semitic videos:

In addition to arguing that it would be impossible for the Nazis to have cremated a million Jews at Auschwitz [in Exposed], Anderson claims that the slave laborers there got compensated for their work and could buy items at a commissary. He further asserts that Jews were able to play on a soccer team and act in musicals and plays at Auschwitz.

The film [Marching to Zion], released in March 2015, refers to Judaism as the “synagogue of Satan” and claims that Jews are followers of the Antichrist. He also asserts that Jews who deny that Jesus is the Messiah would lie about the Holocaust. He argues, “Why would it surprise you that the people who deny the Christ, who deny that Jesus is the messiah, would lie to you about something else?”

Anderson warns that the “real Holocaust” for the Jews will occur if they don’t accept Jesus as the Messiah. He says, “The real burnt offering is going to be when all of these Jews that don’t believe in Jesus Christ go to hell for eternity. That’s the oven that they ought to be worried about.”

Below is a letter sent in 2018 by the ADL to the Ocean View School District in Orange County, California, asking its school board to remove Van Der Mark from a citizens oversight committee, citing the Holocaust denial video and her far-right associations.

Van Der Mark Adl Letter To Ocean View School District (1)

382KB ∙ PDF file

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Van Der Mark claimed that she linked to the videos for research purposes after they were sent to her by a Jewish organizer she met at a racial justice workshop [that she and other far-right activists disrupted].

Describing herself as an open-minded truth seeker, whom intolerant liberals want to silence with false accusations of racism and anti-Semitism, Van Der Mark uses the same far-right cliche Hoskinson used to defend himself from critics of his conspiracy theory describing “evil” Jewish-Marxist multiculturalists he says want to destroy western culture.

Her fact-finding tours also delved into Islamophobia, homophobia, and racism with uncritical enthusiasm that makes her defense seem contrived.

We only once heard her say, with a faint “Yes,” that she believes the Holocaust was real.

Councilmember Natalie Moser dragged it out of her at city council last August to determine if she was qualified to sit on an ad-hoc committee that would handle sensitive human rights issues.

The committee was stacked by the previous mayor in order to trash the city’s eloquently written Declaration of Policy on Human Dignity, a bipartisan effort started by former HB Mayor Shirley Dettloff, a democrat, and former Mayor Ralph Bauer, a republican.

Mayor Strickland and City Attorney Michael Gates bullied Moser for her effort, calling it a violation of decorum and unrelated to the agenda item.

Moser’s final punishment—and Van Der Mark’s validation—came on Sept 5 when the MAGA majority censured her.

Att 1 2023 09 05 Burns Mckeon Strickland Censure Of Moser

222KB ∙ PDF file

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At the same meeting, the MAGAs voted to replace the Human Dignity declaration with a partisan statement that turned out to be soulless and laced with bigotry.

For example, both the 1996 and 2021 versions of the Declaration of Policy on Human Dignity contain the sentence, “The Huntington Beach City Council states in the strongest terms that it condemns all hate incidents and hate crimes and will vigorously fight criminal activity related to hate with all of the resources at its disposal,” and also refer to racial background, nation of origin, religious practices, sexual orientation, gender, and disability status.

Att 2 Declarations 1996 And 2021

1.12MB ∙ PDF file

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But the city’s new Policy on Human Dignity passed by the MAGA majority is bereft of all such references, eliminating the original document’s intent to prevent hate crimes and incidents based on racism and other forms of bigotry.

Att 1 Policy On Human Dignity 2023

4.76MB ∙ PDF file

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Instead, it emphasizes fighting crime in general, including child abuse and “sexual grooming,” an indirect reference to Van Der Mark’s anti-LBGTQ agenda and creation of a book-banning committee.

Instead of denouncing hate based on sexual identifies, it notes the “genetic differences between male and female” and the “strengths and benefits of each” that “warrant separation during certain activities (i.e. sports).”

On the same day, the MAGA majority dissolved the Human Relations Committee that was inspired by deadly hate crimes committed in the city by white supremacists in the 1990s.

A brief history of HB’s Declaration of Policy on Human Dignity as told by Shirley Dettloff, former mayor. Served on the city council 1994-2000.

I was Mayor pro-tem at the time and received a call from a reporter in San Francisco who told me that Huntington Beach was considered the skin-head capital of California. I was taken aback, although I had seen and heard of evidence of them confronting people and recruiting at our local high schools. I immediately went into Ralph Bauer's office where we discussed the issue and remembered other times when members of our community had been attacked. Several years back a black man had been killed on Beach Blvd., and very little notice given to his death. I had a letter from a young woman from out of town who had been confronted on Main St. by a gang of skinheads. She said she would never visit H.B. again. And we had an attack on a Native American on our beach. We also had a history of racism with the John Birch Society. So we called on the head of the Human Relations group for the County to get direction on how to confront the issue. He said it would never work unless we had full City Council support, along with the clergy. So Ralph and I, along with staff and Former Police Chief Lowenberg, wrote the Human Dignity Statement which has been signed by every city council up until 2023. The current city council did not sign the statement, but rewrote it to be almost useless.

Surf City’s rising tide of official bigotry

Even with the rise of local Tea Party politics in the city in 2014, overt bigotry could still get a person kicked off a citizens committee serving an elected body within the city, whether on the city council or local school board.

That happened to Hoskinson in 2016 (as noted above) and to Van Der Mark in 2018 when the Ocean View school board took her off a citizens oversight committee due to her neo-fascist associations.

In 2018, Van Der Mark again faced calls for her removal from the city’s Finance Advisory Committee for the same reasons. But Councilmember Patrick Brenden, her sponsor, stood by her side.

Today, she is the mayor of Huntington Beach and co-rules the city with her fascistic MAGA cohorts. And Michael Hoslinson’s dream has finally become reality.

“We’re on track to hopefully take our city over,” Michael Hoskinson bragged, while giving a lecture to a local Tea Party gathering in 2016.

This is one in a series of occasional articles examining rising neo-fascism in Huntington Beach, its consequences and efforts to defeat it.

In his “darker days,” Michael Hoskinson thought seriously about building a 10 by 10 shack in Montana to write his manifesto. “Like the Unabomber did,” he told a Tea-Party Internet show. [Note: this video has been removed]

“I was headed into the darkness,” he recalled.

But he met the woman of his life and married her. “And she showed me that there is more to life than the downside. And everything ramped up from there.”

Today Hoskinson is a Tea-Party organizer, sells real estate, and sits on the Huntington Beach Planning Commission.

The latter was his reward for helping to elect Tea-Party favorite Erik Peterson to the city council in a 2014 sweep that knocked off two favored incumbents.

“We’re on track to hopefully take our city over,” he bragged, while giving a lecture to a local Tea Party gathering (full video) on Nov. 19.

In 2017, he will be chairman of the planning commission and poised to run for city council in 2018, if he wants to.

In the meantime, his greatest passion is exposing “political correctness” in the conspiracy-charting style of Glenn Beck.

During his lecture, “Political Correctness: The Death of America,” Hoskinson warned of a highly successful but diabolical Jewish-Marxist plot to insidiously destroy Western culture from within.

It all began, he said, in the 1920s when a small group of Jewish-Marxist intellectuals, informally known as the Frankfurt School, met in Frankfurt, Germany and developed “cultural Marxism” as their tool of destruction.

Cultural Marxism, in turn, became today’s political correctness.

“It was invented [by leftists] with an express purpose: to take away our freedoms,” by silencing critics with embarrassing accusations of racism and intolerance, “because they have no other argument.”

The Frankfurt group would quietly infiltrate Western society to destroy its faith, culture, and economic system using “social and cultural warfare simultaneously,” he explained.

Via the teachings of Freud, they would encourage pansexuality to “destroy the mentality of human beings.” They would introduce feminism, and worst of all, multiculturalism, which Hoskinson calls a “poison” on his Facebook page.

“They wanted to create chaos,” he said.

Then came Hitler. “So they knew they were going to be on the chopping block. So they fled to America.”

They started teaching at Columbia University. Soon, their influence spread across America “like an invasive disease in our college systems, selling their cultural Marxism” as they indoctrinated students with an 11 point plan that Hoskinson imaginatively interprets below:

1) Creation of racism offenses. “Anybody notice that? Black Lives Matter?”

2) Continual change to create confusion (so conservatives can’t keep apace)

3) Teaching sex and homosexuality to children

4) Undermining of school and teachers’ authority

5) Huge immigration to destroy identity

6) Promotion of excessive drinking

7) Emptying our (Christian) Churches

8) An unreliable justice system with bias against victims

9) Dependency on state or state benefits

10) Control and dumbing down of media

11) Encouraging the breakdown of the family

They have been running through American culture like Zelig, he said, and “They hate the West. They hate our freedom. They hate capitalism.”

Everything that’s bad at American colleges today (including the youth vote for Hillary Clinton), Hoskinson says, resulted from the escape of the Frankfurt school’s evil Jewish-Marxists to America.

“If I could go back in time, these are the ones I’d like to take out,” he said, in all seriousness. “The world would be a much better place. They look like nice folks. They are as evil as evil could be.”

Today, he laments, the cultural Marxists own the White House (Obama went to Columbia University), Hollywood, the media, and the Internet. “They own every microphone there is. Once we are silent, there is nothing we can do after that.”

People may be killed to prevent that.

Video courtesy of and edited by Mark Bixby, Surf City Sentinel on Facebook

In his lecture, Hoskinson, who says he is a “concealed carrier”, acts deadly serious. He would kill (Jewish) billionaire George Soros (who he wrongly accused of being a Nazi collaborator as a child and then blames for the collapse of the English banks) and maybe lots of others too:

“I don’t know why this man is still allowed to walk the Earth. I’d shoot him myself if I had the chance. He’s a horrible human being. He’s an enemy of this country. I think we need to revive that, to a certain extent, of looking at people and saying, ‘You are actively subverting this country.’ And I think the media to a certain extent is seditious because they were part of an active conspiracy to collude to take the country over, in my eyes. And I would do some changing with them if I had half a chance. I don’t—you don’t get to hide behind the First Amendment if you’re trying to overcome the country. I mean, and that’s not how the rules work.”

Hoskinson ignorantly misrepresents the Frankfurt School and its development of Marxist-based critical theory to challenge Capitalism’s influence on American culture. He also wildly generalizes its effect on American culture while ignoring many other influences. (See my links below)

His expose seems to fit Salvador Dalí’s description of the “paranoiac critical method,” derived from a “delirium of interpretation.”

Still, variations of “political correctness” exist in all parts of the political spectrum. And there is no better example of how insidiously dangerous it can be than Hoskinson himself, with his threats of personal and state-issued violence against opponents, and the racist monoculturalism preached by the Tea-Party school upon which his political future, if there is one, rests.

The undercurrent to Hoskinson’s PC monomania is a virulent anti-Semitism that is thinly disguised in his lectures.

Scratch the surface of the YouTube video,“Frankfurt School: Western Subversion by Design,” [Note: this video has been removed] which Hoskinson partly bases his lectures on and promotes on his Twitter page, for example, and you have a mini-version of the “Protocols of The Elders of Zion” (the nefarious Jewish conspiracy forgery used by Hitler for propaganda), complete with lurid imagery of Stars of David used to identify Jews or Jewish influence, at least one viciously illustrated Jewish caricature that looks right out of the Nazi tabloid, Der Stürmer, and ominous background music throughout.

When asked through Twitter and Facebook to respond for this article, Hoskinson was flippant and predictable. “Lurid? ‘Characterized by shocking or outrageous behavior’… that sounds like me (smiley face).”

Messaging later by Facebook, he wrote: “Good morning John, can you share why folks like you work so hard to silence folks like me?”

As for threatening George Soros and others, “You’re misreading it,” he said. “Think metaphor.” Then he linked to a fake(ish) news article about Obama on a website that received an Accuracy in Media Award from the neo-Fascist news website Breitbart.

One might ask, is Michael Hoskinson fit to hold public office?

Erik Peterson, the city council member who appointed him to the planning commission, is looking into the matter now in response to a well-documented citizen complaint.

So far, Peterson said he found one photo from Hoskinson’s Twitter page to be “disconcerting,” but said repeatedly that he finds it hard to understand because Hoskinson is “not a racist at all” nor anti-Semitic, and “I know he has a lot of Jewish friends.”

Peterson fully supports free speech rights, but emphasized that “I don’t appreciate Nazi crap.”

Will Hoskinson be fired? “If he’s promoting Nazism, yeah,” Peterson answered.

Rumors of Hoskinson’s resignation have circulated since December 13 when he announced that he would not attend a Planning Commission meeting scheduled that night.

But Hoskinson told the Voice by Facebook Messenger that he did not resign.

“Good morning, I wasn’t aware I had resigned, do you know something I don’t or has Connie Boardman’s ‘Gaming the Ref’ insanity gotten to you as well ?”

Boardman is a former Huntington Beach mayor who openly called for Hoskinson’s resignation after publication of the Voice story.

When told that Peterson had confirmed his resignation by email, Hoskinson replied that, “He’s the boss, if he says i’m out I’m out, I serve at his pleasure.”

No reason for the “resignation” was given by Peterson, but calls for Hoskinson’s firing or resignation have steamrolled ever since the Surf City Voice wrote about anti-Semitic and racist undercurrents in lectures he gave on “political correctness” to local Tea Party gatherings in recent months.

Those comments were accompanied by what the commissioner later called “metaphorical” threats of violence, including assassination, made to alleged “cultural Marxists”, i.e., feminists, environmentalists, and advocates of “multiculturalism” –who he believes are part of a Jewish-Marxist originated conspiracy to destroy Western culture.

Hoskinson and his supporters defended him, claiming that the Voice article was part of a smear campaign by progressive practitioners of political correctness to silence him.

When contacted by the Voice this morning, Hoskinson blamed this writer for “stirring up a hornet’s nest” about his anti-Muslim views and warned that he would hold me accountable for any blow-back.

“On another subject, as you stirred up the hornet’s nest with the misdirection about Islam and it was written about on the front page of the Pilot, if any harm comes to my family, friends or me from it you will answer to me, are we clear ?”

Actually, my story didn’t mention any of the numerous instances of Hoskinson’s well-known anti-Muslim bigotry.

And when I asked Hoskinson if I should contact the police about his threat, or if it was only metaphorical, his reply was indicative of the paranoid ideation that I did, in fact, describe in my original story:

“I’ll be writing a letter to the editor of the LA Times and CCing it to the city attorney and Chief as well. I remember Charlie Hebdo and take these folks seriously.”

Tonight’s city council meeting begins at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

Note: This story was updated within minutes of first publication to include Mr. Hoskinson’s response.

In his “darker days,” Michael Hoskinson thought seriously about building a 10 by 10 shack in Montana to write his manifesto. “Like the Unabomber did,” he told a Tea-Party Internet show. [Note: this video has been removed]

“I was headed into the darkness,” he recalled.

But he met the woman of his life and married her. “And she showed me that there is more to life than the downside. And everything ramped up from there.”

Today Hoskinson is a Tea-Party organizer, sells real estate, and sits on the Huntington Beach Planning Commission.

The latter was his reward for helping to elect Tea-Party favorite Erik Peterson to the city council in a 2014 sweep that knocked off two favored incumbents.

“We’re on track to hopefully take our city over,” he bragged, while giving a lecture to a local Tea Party gathering (full video) on Nov. 19.

In 2017, he will be chairman of the planning commission and poised to run for city council in 2018, if he wants to.

In the meantime, his greatest passion is exposing “political correctness” in the conspiracy-charting style of Glenn Beck.

During his lecture, “Political Correctness: The Death of America,” Hoskinson warned of a highly successful but diabolical Jewish-Marxist plot to insidiously destroy Western culture from within.

It all began, he said, in the 1920s when a small group of Jewish-Marxist intellectuals, informally known as the Frankfurt School, met in Frankfurt, Germany and developed “cultural Marxism” as their tool of destruction.

Cultural Marxism, in turn, became today’s political correctness.

“It was invented [by leftists] with an express purpose: to take away our freedoms,” by silencing critics with embarrassing accusations of racism and intolerance, “because they have no other argument.”

The Frankfurt group would quietly infiltrate Western society to destroy its faith, culture, and economic system using “social and cultural warfare simultaneously,” he explained.

Via the teachings of Freud, they would encourage pansexuality to “destroy the mentality of human beings.” They would introduce feminism, and worst of all, multiculturalism, which Hoskinson calls a “poison” on his Facebook page.

“They wanted to create chaos,” he said.

Then came Hitler. “So they knew they were going to be on the chopping block. So they fled to America.”

They started teaching at Columbia University. Soon, their influence spread across America “like an invasive disease in our college systems, selling their cultural Marxism” as they indoctrinated students with an 11 point plan that Hoskinson imaginatively interprets below:

1) Creation of racism offenses. “Anybody notice that? Black Lives Matter?”

2) Continual change to create confusion (so conservatives can’t keep apace)

3) Teaching sex and homosexuality to children

4) Undermining of school and teachers’ authority

5) Huge immigration to destroy identity

6) Promotion of excessive drinking

7) Emptying our (Christian) Churches

8) An unreliable justice system with bias against victims

9) Dependency on state or state benefits

10) Control and dumbing down of media

11) Encouraging the breakdown of the family

They have been running through American culture like Zelig, he said, and “They hate the West. They hate our freedom. They hate capitalism.”

Everything that’s bad at American colleges today (including the youth vote for Hillary Clinton), Hoskinson says, resulted from the escape of the Frankfurt school’s evil Jewish-Marxists to America.

“If I could go back in time, these are the ones I’d like to take out,” he said, in all seriousness. “The world would be a much better place. They look like nice folks. They are as evil as evil could be.”

Today, he laments, the cultural Marxists own the White House (Obama went to Columbia University), Hollywood, the media, and the Internet. “They own every microphone there is. Once we are silent, there is nothing we can do after that.”

People may be killed to prevent that.

Video courtesy of and edited by Mark Bixby, Surf City Sentinel on Facebook

In his lecture, Hoskinson, who says he is a “concealed carrier”, acts deadly serious. He would kill (Jewish) billionaire George Soros (who he wrongly accused of being a Nazi collaborator as a child and then blames for the collapse of the English banks) and maybe lots of others too:

“I don’t know why this man is still allowed to walk the Earth. I’d shoot him myself if I had the chance. He’s a horrible human being. He’s an enemy of this country. I think we need to revive that, to a certain extent, of looking at people and saying, ‘You are actively subverting this country.’ And I think the media to a certain extent is seditious because they were part of an active conspiracy to collude to take the country over, in my eyes. And I would do some changing with them if I had half a chance. I don’t—you don’t get to hide behind the First Amendment if you’re trying to overcome the country. I mean, and that’s not how the rules work.”

Hoskinson ignorantly misrepresents the Frankfurt School and its development of Marxist-based critical theory to challenge Capitalism’s influence on American culture. He also wildly generalizes its effect on American culture while ignoring many other influences. (See my links below)

His expose seems to fit Salvador Dalí’s description of the “paranoiac critical method,” derived from a “delirium of interpretation.”

Still, variations of “political correctness” exist in all parts of the political spectrum. And there is no better example of how insidiously dangerous it can be than Hoskinson himself, with his threats of personal and state-issued violence against opponents, and the racist monoculturalism preached by the Tea-Party school upon which his political future, if there is one, rests.

The undercurrent to Hoskinson’s PC monomania is a virulent anti-Semitism that is thinly disguised in his lectures.

Scratch the surface of the YouTube video,“Frankfurt School: Western Subversion by Design,” [Note: this video has been removed] which Hoskinson partly bases his lectures on and promotes on his Twitter page, for example, and you have a mini-version of the “Protocols of The Elders of Zion” (the nefarious Jewish conspiracy forgery used by Hitler for propaganda), complete with lurid imagery of Stars of David used to identify Jews or Jewish influence, at least one viciously illustrated Jewish caricature that looks right out of the Nazi tabloid, Der Stürmer, and ominous background music throughout.

When asked through Twitter and Facebook to respond for this article, Hoskinson was flippant and predictable. “Lurid? ‘Characterized by shocking or outrageous behavior’… that sounds like me (smiley face).”

Messaging later by Facebook, he wrote: “Good morning John, can you share why folks like you work so hard to silence folks like me?”

As for threatening George Soros and others, “You’re misreading it,” he said. “Think metaphor.” Then he linked to a fake(ish) news article about Obama on a website that received an Accuracy in Media Award from the neo-Fascist news website Breitbart.

One might ask, is Michael Hoskinson fit to hold public office?

Erik Peterson, the city council member who appointed him to the planning commission, is looking into the matter now in response to a well-documented citizen complaint.

So far, Peterson said he found one photo from Hoskinson’s Twitter page to be “disconcerting,” but said repeatedly that he finds it hard to understand because Hoskinson is “not a racist at all” nor anti-Semitic, and “I know he has a lot of Jewish friends.”

Peterson fully supports free speech rights, but emphasized that “I don’t appreciate Nazi crap.”

Will Hoskinson be fired? “If he’s promoting Nazism, yeah,” Peterson answered.

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