Why is it that far-right Republicans are more organized than the rest of us?
Progressive-Dems have plenty of causes to push their desire for equality to new levels of activism. But all they seem to accomplish is protesting and talking.
There was the whole controversy over Paso Robles Joint Unified School District board member Chris Arend—who believes systemic racism is a fallacy and yells at Spanish speakers because the district translator doesn’t translate very well—as well as some of Arend’s ideological cronies on the board—who are worried that teaching a high school ethnic studies course will unfairly target white students. (Insert eye roll.) These elected officials represent a school district that is majority Latino with a high percentage of families who speak Spanish at home.
Did all of the outraged lefty-besties come together to get the district to hire a translator who can actually translate and organize a recall of board members so Paso’s Latino community can get better representation? Nope, nope.
There’s the Cuesta College board of trustees, which actually censured board member Pete Sysak for being a racist, misogynist, demeaning dipstick on social media. Sysak also believes that racism isn’t actually a thing and felt super persecuted by the community members who demanded he remove himself from office for practicing his First Amendment right! (Poor guy. Not!) And that was as far as the pushback against him went. No Sysak recall petitions in sight.
But when it comes to school board members who follow public safety protocols and state requirements regarding COVID-19, some righty-tighties got their ducks in a row. Well, actually, just the first couple of ducklings have starting forming a recall line against three Lucia Mar Unified School District board members. But I have faith in the power of Gov. Gavin Newsolini haters to put their signatures on the petition line.
The group of parents in charge of the effort, Central Coast Families for Education Reform, seems to be very organized, even having a press conference about the recall effort on May 4 and publishing notices in a local newspaper on top of sending out a press release!
Seriously? Who’s pulling the strings? It’s not progressives, because the most organized thing those lefty-besties can do is protest. This group, which claims to be nonpartisan, is definitely anti-“the governor’s ridiculous guidelines.”
Recall effort leader Shannon Galvan, whose kids attend Arroyo Grande High School, made her feelings about the district’s so-called safety rules very clear. Although her kids are back attending in-person classes, it’s just not the same. Her kids’ classes are empty.
Must be the school board members’ fault that a majority of kids have opted not to return to classes. It’s definitely not parents taking COVID-19 pandemic precautions.
Group Vice President Michael Mulder claimed that theses three board members don’t support the best interests of students, in part because they voted against school resource officers on school campuses. Putting cops on campus is definitely the best way to show you care, duh!
“For the past six months we have watched our school district go downhill,” he told a crowd of supporters on May 4 without a trace of nonpartisanship.
Meanwhile, the district followed health and safety mandates, county guidelines, and reopened classrooms as quickly as it was allowed—all by unanimous decisions. So why pick on just three of seven board members? I’ll give you one guess. Yes! Partisan, partisan, partisan. If you say it three times fast, do the partisans disappear?
If the group is successful in its recall efforts, the district will need to shell out $350,000 for a special election.
“A lot of these parents talk about student needs, and it costs money to pay for services,” Lucia Mar Unified Teachers Association President Cody King said. “Spending a bunch of money on a special election doesn’t seem like a good use of those resources.”
Touché, man. King called the recall effort a “witch hunt.” Where have I heard that before? Oh! It was one of President Donald Trump‘s favorite turns of phrase. Only in this case, it seems to appropriately classify what’s happening.
Just like the California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) seemed to appropriately classify the city of San Luis Obispo‘s efforts to strengthen its tent and shopping cart ordinances. In a letter it sent to the city, it claimed the ordinances would further target and criminalize homeless individuals in the city. Well, City Attorney Christine Dietrich, took umbrage with that classification!
In a response letter to the CRLA, Dietrich said that city staff does not agree that the ordinances specifically focus on unhoused individuals. Banning tents from public spaces definitely sounds like a community-wide ordinance. All those people putting up tents for a short picnic lunch ought to be ashamed of themselves!
Oh wait, that’s not actually a thing. It’s unhoused individuals who need a private place to sleep who put tents up in public spaces, because they literally have nowhere else to go. As far as shopping carts go: Obviously, housed residents ride them around town all the time! Not. Dietrich also said that staff recommended that SLO City Council wait to make a decision on the ordinances’ final adoption while the city figures out whether the CRLA will make good on its legal threats. Nice! Δ
The Shredder is a partisan ally. Send comments to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in May 13-23, 2021.
Fascists and other assorted totalitarian types have always been able to marshal their poorly informed constituents into action for a given issue, while liberals and more than a few progressives wax existential while making posters and banners and peacefully protesting. To be fair, SLO County isn’t exactly known as a hotbed of progressive activity.
Apparently, hate and manufactured sturm und drang are easier for some people to coalesce around than equality , justice, compassion and fairness are…
I managed to read this opinion letter two times trying to understand its point(s). Several are still beyond capture.
I intuit one point is that critics of the “systemic racism” claim, are wrong. I have yet to hear a definition of “systemic racism” which makes any sense; and our society does not appear to be racist; other than in the left’s desperate effort to categorize people based on the color of their skin (a remarkably retrograde strategy for those who consider themselves “progressives”).
One other point which seems to be made is that the writer has little solution to the “homelessness on the streets” problem, other than to assault efforts by the government to contain it in any manner. For those of us who watched the disintegration of San Francisco’s public environment, making sure people can put their tents in public spaces is probably not an element of a rational solution.
Herein lies the inherent problem of attempting a dialogue with many authoritarians, it takes longer to confront and dispel a lie than it does to tell it.
Obviously the US is a racist country which should be expected seeing how it was founded upon slavery and genocide, much of which continues to this day.
As for dealing with homelessness, other than changing the obscene right wing policies and inequality which created it in the first place, is simply to provide housing. To do so is many times less expensive and leads to increased productivity and decreased substance abuse and crime. Apparently, providing people with a safe place to live and sleep allows them to participate and or contribute more to society than sleeping in a tent in some riverbed. Who knew? Just another in a long list of examples where results are trumped by ideology.
As Jesus taught us: “love they neighbor“. The Bible tells us that Jesus and his family were homeless. Would we deny a tent shelter for Jesus and his family? Would we throw a newborn baby out of a manger and tell the family to keep moving on down the line?
https://recallluciamarschoolboard.org/
“I have yet to hear a definition of “systemic racism” which makes any sense”
Ok, so let’s assume you and Mr. Arend are correct and there is no systemic racism in this country and we haven’t been a racist nation to any extent for many years, as you, and especially Al Fonzi, contends. If that’s true, why is it that African Americans lag seriously behind whites in every economic category more than 150 years since the end of the Civil War and nearly 60 years since the end of Jim Crow. In fact, the average white has at least TEN times more wealth than the average black.
Explain that to me. I dare you.
Wow what a crock of beans! What kind of “Rag” publishes lies like this and expects people to take them seriously? Even Facebook Fact Checkers would block this writers fake news.
To answer Shredder’s question in his opening sentence, YES, the far right, i.e. white nationalist Trumpers, ARE more organized than moderates, independents, and progressives. And they are the most motivated voters in the US. Why? They are afraid of losing what they imagine is their power and privilege. This makes them frightened, angry, and determined. And a number of them have organized into armed groups/militias. And with voter suppression measures put in place by Republican state legislatures they are poised to capture the House of Representatives in 2022. Think about that.
The WHITE liberal oppressive democrat party displayed in all its glory. People of color see through your crap. We are leaving the democrat plantation in droves and forever. Vote Republican, the party of Lincoln.
Since when do you speak for all so-called people of color? Isn’t that a little presumptuous if not downright arrogant? It’s certainly bullsit for sure.
Whacky Liberalism = Plantation Politics
BLM = Democrat Party Produced-Self Pity
Antifa Anarchist= Social Destruction
The Shredder=Reliably Partisan Liberal
The whacky Alt. Left supports people power UNLESS it’s people who they don’t agree with, then the 1st amendment rights of free speech and free association must be attacked.
Intelligent people see right through Shredder hypocrisy.
Typical White supremacist “shut down” tactic. “When do you speak for…” White people…stop helping us!! We are capable of overcoming anything in front of us on our own. If you want to understand, read Booker T. Washington’s “Up from Slavery.” Don’t listen to RACE PIMPS like BLM, Antifa, democrat politicians, so-called “black leaders”. How dare you, rightturd, say to me that I have no voice in the exploitation of my people by left privileged, democrat slavery party, child rape promoting, race dividing, communist sympathizing, radical socialist operatives that seek to destroy this country and the American way of life? Check yourself you son of a bitch.
It is important to help those in need , however hard working people don’t want help if given the opportunity to make it themselves. No body wants to be identified as a victim. So why are we now not educating and traing a population to work work work. Work is a blessing !!! Leftists want the same things the conservatives want , an opportunity to make it in this world , for all our children . We are so blessed in this country , we have so much . I beleive God wants to bless us , but we need to work , rich , poor , black , white , love each other , as Christ loves us .
I AGREE with Silence Dogwood!
The liberal white elites DO NOT speak for me, and it is their party and their ideology that leads to oppression and helplessness. Our governments attempts to lift people up ought to rightly focus on self-reliance, self-respect and self-responsibility-there is no other way.
The Democrat Party has created a big plantation, and the people who saddle up with them will never do well, welfare and handouts must not be a way of life, and taxpayer-funded assistance ought to be a springboard not a hammock. As former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said, the problem with socialism is that, pretty soon, you run out of other peoples money to spend. Get it?
Here locally, the whacky Alt.Left Liberal/Democrats have embraced Antifa Anarchism, BLM Foolishness/violence against law enforcement, and leftist socialism which is unsustainable. Now we have drug bums occupying our parks, a downtown district that families have abandoned, and daily attacks on local capitalism. When does it stop?
Abandon Democrats in 2022/2024.
Blue Lives Matter
Most of us do NOT want to abandon democracy in 2022. We love democracy. We love our neighbors. We love people even if they have different color skin than ours or were born in a different country. We want everyone in the world to be fed and have access to quality healthcare and education.
You want a free ride on the backs of working families. The very families whose values you scoff at, who you have handed over their public parks to vagrants who vote democrat, who you wish to indoctrinate their children in promiscuous morality and dubious sexual orientation, who you supersede in the favor of illegal aliens whose votes you purchase with programs paid for by the families you have abandoned in the quest for left privilege. You didn’t abandon democracy, you have never advocated FOR it! The democrat plantation party is the party of dependence on government, dependence on corrupt politics and dependence on the citizens being so preoccupied with earning a living during a pandemic that they won’t see through the bullshit sandwich being fed to them by the Biden/Newsom/(insert democrat asswipe here) cabal. You and your like want to feed your appetite for power and influence only, you don’t give a shit about anything else. Healthcare and education???? Only if it’s directed by democrat policy and overseen by Leftists, right? Vote Republican if you want real progress in this area, state, country and world.
Love thy neighbor.
Bigotry, hate, violence and White supremacist propaganda have no proper place in civilized society. It is so much nicer to live in love, compassion and peace.
The opportunity to serve others selflessly is one of the great blessings God gives us. Its up to each of us as to whether we respect and honor that gift.
We can live in love or we can live in fear. Theres no in between.
There are many doors to hell. Theres only one door to heaven.
When all is said and done, everyone reaps what they sowed.
Rightword2 has her head way up her lefty ass
Nope. Not physically possible. Sorry.
Dear Keith,
Go easy on our ‘friend’, Rightword, she tries to get the most out of every brain cell in her body, even if it doesn’t always sound like it! Our whacky liberal Alt. Left partisans believe they gain from attacking others and how ironic that they now turn their backs on free speech. On another post, she was criticizing the Blue Lives Matter movement, and she viciously attacked those who stand with law enforcement after the cold-blooded murder of fine SLO Police Officer Luca Benedetti.
Our Alt. Left Friends HATED to see the local outpouring of support for Officer Benedetti, and people like Rightword, Heidi Harmon, Quinn Brady, Joe Tarica, etc. cannot stand to see our community embrace our fine law enforcement officers while denouncing the BLM fools/Antifa Anarchist and Democrat Party Plantation Politics..
Blue Lives Matter.
New Times removed comments by “Steve Edwards” under another article. Those comments included the unsubstantiated claim that the suspect involved in Det. Benedetti’s death was inspired by Heidi Harmon, Black Lives Matter and “Antifa.” Those claims were repeated ad nauseum and amplified on social media among board members of the SLO County GOP. The incitement of contempt and violence is simply unacceptable.
Similarly, there is no evidence that anyone expressed “hatred” for the outpouring of community support for the first SLOPD officer who lost their life in an officer-involved shooting in recent memory. People from all political stripes are heartbroken by the tragic loss.
What happened was an absolute tragedy, but that tragedy is prolonged by a hyperpartisan fake account that makes these long-winded, politically charged proclamations and slogans. It’s almost as if this account is solely used to campaign on behalf of the SLO County GOP as they’ve echoed similar talking points for years.
But exploiting and politicizing the death of Det. Beneditti to incite violence is a new low. I call on “Steve Edwards” to be blocked from the New Times permanently until they have the courage to stand by their cowardly words and actions using their real name.
Yes, the person calling himself Steve Edwards is using New Times to instigate violence in our community.
If new times was wise and interested in fascinating journalism, they should track down the person who calls himself Steve Edwards and expose him for what he is.
The new times gestapo on display. Left wing folks are fascists. “They should track down the person…” Really? Should they inter them in re-education camps, Aaron Ochs and right turd? Should we burn the books he reads? Dissenting opinions should be banned? 1st amendment which the left privilege whines they are not allowed, not applicable to conservative thoughts? Wow! Keep typing people, you are a matter of public record. The pendulum swings BOTH ways folks, it’s already swinging back from the last election. To any reasonable reader out there… vote Republican. At least that party has the backbone to protect ALL of your rights. 1st amendment, 2nd amendment and so on. The plantation leftist democrat party seeks to call everyone racist in an attempt to limit speech, limit dissent and increase totalitarian power for the elite white wealthy folks that run California, New York, etc (for now…). See Biden, Pelosi, Cuomo, ad infinitum. If these folks are indicative of leadership you crave, then vote accordingly. If Tim Scott, Ron Desantis, Candace Owens, Thomas Sowell and like-minded folks interest you, vote accordingly. The latter folks won’t be hunting you down or “tracking you” for your “idea crimes” because conservatives don’t do that.
The mendacious White supremacist who calls himself Steve Edwards is continually spreading lies, attempting to incite violence in our community. I think it is worth doing an in-depth investigation. It could save someone’s life. It could make for an interesting podcast, as well.
As of today, there is a $500 grant that will be awarded to any New Times or San Luis Obispo Tribune reporter who publishes a story or produces a publicly available podcast before September 2021 revealing the true identity of the hateful, propaganda spewing White supremacist who calls himself Steve Edwards on this and other Central Coast websites.
Addendum: The $500 grant will only be awarded to the first New Times or Tribune reporter to publicly reveal the true identity of the person who calls himself “Steve Edwards”.
It’s worth reminding people that the New Times is a business, not a government entity, so the First Amendment argument doesn’t apply. Crying censorship and claiming the political left are appealing to totalitarianism simply doesn’t fly. No one’s rights are under siege. Take a civics class.
“Left wing folks are fascists.”
Sorry Dagwood, but this is a contradiction in terms. Left wing and fascism are mutually exclusive.
Now, if you had called them communists you might have a point.
You must have been educated at a public school. Sorry for that.
Oh wow, another exhaustive Shredder Cheese column about Elephants spray painting Dorothy’s Yelllow Brink Road every shade of Grey without considering Donkey’s feelings about rainbow-colored hair extensions. Endless Crocodile tears.
In the past American media, certainly LIBERAL American media, has for more than a 100 years encouraged and promoted freedom of expression no matter how offensive and polarizing. Now a so-called liberal media outlet is continuing the same lame censorship tactics as conservatives when they feel offended or they’re able to extract more advertising revenue. SLO New Times only follows their so-called lofty principles when it suits their financial and political aspirations of the Shredded Cheddar Head Gang.
No newspaper Ive ever heard of, liberal or conservative, published all the letters to the editor or opinion pieces it receives. A quality newspaper or media outlet of any kind does not let it be used to promote grossly miss leading and/or violence inciting propaganda in the community.
If anyone insists on publishing propaganda they have the freedom to publish it themselves, not the freedom to make others publish it for them.
I say forgive them Lord, they know not what they do.
I think its obvious that people like two of our blogger friends here love drama and cannot stand diversity of opinion, and it is THEIR hate that is noteworthy. THEIR hatred of diversity of thought, THEIR hatred of diversity of opinion and THEIR hatred of diversity of reasonable differences means that they cannot stand those who confront and challenge their ignorance. Such little brains!
Guess what? These two are detested even in their own local clan of social justice warriors. They are BOTH mocked and abandoned even by those fellow travelers in their own liberal circle who embrace socialism, and very few people put credence into their ability to think intelligently. The local leftist community is embarrassed by their very presence, even the local libs are creeped out by them! Moreover, anyone who confronts their whacky belief system is a racist, anyone who doesnt join in on their drama is probably from North County, and anyone who refuses to join their tomfoolery has got to have bad motives. More and more people are coming to believe that their particular brand of whacky left liberalism is simply a mental disease!
I quote: ‘A man who is not liberal when theyre young doesnt have a heart, and a man who is not conservative when theyre old doesnt have a brain.’
No brain? I think these two must have morphed into the scarecrow on the Wizard of Oz!
SLOs True Colors: Support Law Enforcement and reject Antifa and BLM Tomfoolery: Proof is in the Pudding!
R.I.P. SLO City Police Officer Luca Benedetti, Our Hero! (Over $500,000 raised locally for his widow & Kids!)
Support Law Enforcement: Fly a Thin Blue Line Flag ASAP!
Blue Lives Matter! Stand Up Proudly for Law & Order!
Please support GoFundMe Fundraiser for wounded SLO PD Officer Steven Orozco: https://www.gofundme.com/f/2dmijkjooo?
Nonbinary opinions should be encouraged.
To the person who calls himself Steve Edwards: I don’t hate you. But I don’t condone your white supremacist attitude and actions and your continual lying and attempts to incite racial and politically based animosity and violence in our community.
I would welcome you to join me and others in bringing more love, harmony and unity within our community. I strongly believe your heart and soul well benefit mightily.
To the person who calls herself rightward, I dont hate you, but I dont condone your accusatory tactics and your deliberate mischaracterization of the truth. Your lying and attempts to divide our community along political and racial lines has now proven itself to result in violence in our community, and it is a FACT that you and your BLM friends hatred of law enforcement led directly to the murder of beloved SLO City Police Officer Luca Benedetti. The truth may hurt, but it must be told.
I would welcome you to join me and others in bringing more acceptance, solidarity, and respect within our community by henceforth distancing yourself from partisan attacks and diversionary politics, I think its now clear that our broader community strongly supports law enforcement and rejects BLM tomfoolery. Why the hatred against those who serve? Why embrace riots and looting? Why not set a better example for our children?
Hearts and souls heal when we are honest with one another, just saying.
Blue Lives Matter.
R.I.P. Heroic SLO Police Officer Luca Benedetti
Kudos to SLOs OVERWHELMING support for Blue Lives!
Reject Left-Wing Political Extremism/Reject BLM/Antifa Anarchists
Embrace Diversity of Thought/Diversity of Opinion
Democrat gestapo tactics. $500 reward? Aaron Ochs and rightword 2 are obviously racist radicals. They should be forced to write MORE commentary so we can use it to teach children how the nazi’s obtained power in pre-war Germany. The democrats are DESPERATE. This all goes to show that vacant, racist, secular, socialist, communist, fascistic, politics can NEVER win in America. Vote Republican if you believe in freedom and values.